No World Championship points for Fabio Quartararo in Thailand’s rain – The Frenchman doesn’t comment on the debacle – Cal Crutchlow explains the problems instead
Fabio Quartararo suffered a debacle at the Thai Grand Prix. In the rain, the reigning MotoGP World Champion had no chance at the Buriram International Circuit. Already on the first lap Quartararo dropped back to 17th place, although he had started from the second row.
For the complete distance of 25 laps, he did his laps outside the World Championship points. In the end, Quartararo finished 17th and did not score any championship points. With Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) finishing third, Quartararo’s lead shrank to two points.
For Yamaha it was a day to forget. In the rain, Franco Morbidelli was the best M1 rider in the final result in 13th. Cal Crutchlow was 19th and Darryn Binder 21st. It was a very different story in the first rain race of the year.
In March, Quartararo finished second on the podium in Indonesia. Morbidelli and Binder were also in the top 10. This time nothing went right in Thailand. Quartararo was frustrated after the race and did not give any interviews.
Too much pressure in the front tyre
But Crutchlow described the problems, “It wasn’t a good race, that’s for sure. It wasn’t Yamaha’s day. That was the situation. We couldn’t turn the bike over, couldn’t get around the corner. The front tyre got too hot, the tyre pressure was too high. “
It’s not getting any better for @FabioQ20!
He’s down to 18th! We could be heading to Australia with just a two point gap at the top! ThaiGP pic.twitter.com/Ho0pjQFU8d
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 2, 2022
“I was in the group with Fabio. He couldn’t lean, the front wheel didn’t want to go around the corner. I had exactly the same feeling. I was pushing with the rear tyre to compensate for the problems with the front tyre.”
“In the process I destroyed the tread [on the rear] because I was struggling,” sighed Crutchlow, citing the main problem: “The whole race the pressure in the front tyre was too high. There’s nothing more to say.”
The gap between Quartararo and Crutchlow was over half a minute. Riders like Pol Espargaro (Honda), Alex Rins (Suzuki) or even rookie Raul Fernandez (Tech-3-KTM) rode away from the Yamaha duo.
Problems in the dry are compounded in the rain
“At one point I overtook Fabio because at one point we caught the group in front of us,” Crutchlow continued. “I was a second ahead of him. Then he got closer to me. “
“As I wasn’t closing on the group in front of me and I wasn’t going to be in the championship points anyway, I let him pass. He then stayed in the same position I had before. But the pressure in the front tyre was extremely high. I expected much more.”
“The bike in the rain compounded the problems we have in the dry,” Crutchlow believes. “Our bike is not the best in the dry. But Fabio rides so well that he makes the difference. He’s not a bad rain rider.”
“Everyone rides as well as ever in the rain, but our problems are amplified,” said the Briton, without going into detail. “Franky had a good race but he was also 22 seconds behind the winner. We need to work on that. “
Quartararo does not face questions from journalists
As Quartararo did not face the TV cameras or journalists for questions after the race, there was only Yamaha’s press release. The Frenchman was quoted as saying: “The rain came at the worst possible time for us.
A dreadful day for @FabioQ20
The championship lead is slashed to just two points! ThaiGP pic.twitter.com/0ve9r4RBAn
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 2, 2022
“We didn’t have much time on the wet track before the race started – just a few minutes. The first few laps of the race were really tricky. I was pushed off by Jack [Miller] in turn 1 and it only got worse from there.”
“I tried to find a good feeling, but I had a moment in turn 4 and the visibility was really bad. I feel sorry for the Thai fans. I was hoping to have a better race in front of them.”
“We have an idea why we struggled, but we will investigate more to improve for the future. We will try to come back stronger in Australia. “
