The Frenchman finished 10th in the first ever sprint race on Saturday ahead of the Grand Prix in Portimao.
“It’s the jungle.” French rider Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) castigated the lack of safety on Saturday March 25 after the first sprint race in MotoGP history in Portugal. This new race format – shorter – is contested the day before the traditional Sunday meeting and offers up to twelve additional points in the championship, in addition to the 25 awarded to the winner of the GP.
“I don’t like it at all, it’s dangerous but if you’re not aggressive, you lose places”, struck the 2021 world champion, tenth in the event run on the Portimao route. From the first laps, Fabio Quartararo was the victim of a collision with the Spaniard Joan Mir (Honda). Last of the peloton after these setbacks, the Frenchman however managed to go up some of the competition.
A driver injured during the sprint race
“We are not in cars where it is much safer and where contact is less of a problem”, he warned. If, for its very first edition, the sprint kept its promises of spectacle with great battles on the track, the event won by the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), reigning world champion, was also marked by the violent clash between his compatriots Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Luca Marini (Ducati-VR46).
The first was taken to hospital in Portimao and suffered a fractured shoulder blade. He has therefore withdrawn for the rest of the weekend as well as for next week’s meeting in Argentina. “It’s far too dangerous for us on the bike, for the first race and we already have one injured”, denounced Quartararo. In the future, warned the 23-year-old Niçois, “there will be many more falls”.
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