Portimao (Portugal), 24th March 2024 – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo showed consistent pace and defensive riding in the 25-lap Grande Prémio de Portugal Race, and it earned him seventh position. Álex Rins didn’t have the feeling he was looking for today and ultimately crossed the finish line in 13th place.
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo showed strong defensive riding at the Grande Prémio de Portugal Race and his persistence was rewarded with a seventh place and 9 points. Álex Rins wasn’t as competitive as he had hoped for on the Sunday at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve but kept pushing and went on to score his first 3 points of the season thanks to a 13th place.
Quartararo began his quest from P9 and held his position on the opening lap. However, the top-10 rider group soon split up. El Diablo was mostly riding by himself in the first 10 laps but later got company from Miguel Oliveira and Marco Bezzecchi. He kept them at bay until seven laps before the end. When the three riders commenced a battle, it ultimately resulted in the Frenchman circulating in tenth. With three laps to go, Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez crashed out, and on the last lap also Maverick Viñales’ race ended early. This moved Quartararo up to seventh at the chequered flag, 20.130s from first.
Rins had a strong start from P11 and slotted in behind his teammate in tenth position after the usual opening corner tussle. But the Spaniard was unable to stick with Quartararo and soon had to direct his attention to charging riders. Defending his position proved difficult for the number-42 rider as he struggled with his feeling with the front tyre, and he gradually fell back to 16th place. However, he reaped the benefit from several late crashers and climbed back up to 13th in the final classifications, 31.334s from the front, scoring his first points of the 2024 season.
Today’s results see Quartararo keep his 11th place in the overall standings with now 15 points. Rins is in 18th position with 3 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP are 8th in the team championship with 18 points, and Yamaha is in 4th position in the constructor‘s championship with 15 points.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team will be back in action at the Portimao track tomorrow for a private test. The MotoGP World Championship will resume in three weeks’ time at the Circuit of The Americas with the Grand Prix of The Americas.
Massimo Meregalli – Team Director – “It was a tough Race. In the end, Fabio is in the top 7 and Álex scored his first points, but this was mostly due to the late race incidents. Our riders gave it their best shot, and every point counts, but we can’t be satisfied with our overall performance level during this Race. That said, today’s data will be useful for us. We have a private test in Portimao tomorrow. We will use this opportunity to try some set-up solutions to improve the feeling with the front tyre in time for COTA, which is tough on the front tyre. We will also test some new items that we’re working on, because we are keen to introduce updates throughout this season.“
Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider – “After yesterday’s Sprint, I expected to finish a little bit closer to the front guys today, but in terms of position I expected this. We have some good data to analyse, and hopefully we can make some steps forward. It looks like the weather tomorrow will be quite bad, but hopefully we will have a good day to try some things. Apparently, we have many items to test, so that will be great. Hopefully the weather will allow us to test them. We have many small things that we have to improve step by step. We’re on the right way, but we need to be patient.“
Álex Rins – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team Rider – “These are my first Yamaha points, but maybe it wasn’t enough for us. But the second Race is done – it was a hard one. These two races, Qatar and Portimao, didn’t go as I expected. We need to work a little bit more on our own. After this Race, I realised I need to do something different on the bike because I had similar problems today as I had in Qatar. I was struggling a lot with the front. Tomorrow, when we have a private test here, maybe we will need to focus more on the set-up than on the new parts. It’s just our second Race, and we need to get used to the bike and need to understand it.”
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