MotoGP Austria: Fabio Quartararo: Francesco Bagnaia ‘unstoppable’, a bit ‘Verstappen’

The 2023 season may only have reached its halfway point in Austria but Fabio Quartararo doubts anyone can prevent Francesco Bagnaia becoming MotoGP’s first repeat champion since Marc Marquez in 2019.
Fabio Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia, Portuguese MotoGP 23 March
Fabio Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia, Portuguese MotoGP 23 March

Bagnaia swept to♕ his third double victory, Sprint and Sunday races, of the year at the Red Bull Ring, extending his title lead to 62 points over Jo♓rge Martin.

The Italian’s dominance is even greater in terms of race vi🐼ctories, winning 9 of the 20 races so far,💃 with next best Martin and Marco Bezzecchi on just 3 wins each.

Meanwhile, Ducati 🥃has only lost two out of tꩵhe ten Sunday grands prix.

Quartararo, who beat Bagnai🐽a to the 2021 crown before the Ducati rider turned the tables last season, said: “No [I don’t s🍌ee anyone stopping Bagnaia]. I think he's a little bit ‘Verstappen’ now.”

Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen has won a൲ll but two races this year, with his Reꦍd Bull Racing team unbeaten to date.

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“I think also like the previous years, he [Bagnaia] has the best bike, yes - but you can have the best bike and not do the results. It's a com🔴bination,” Quartararo continued.

“And it looks like now the combination [Bagnaia] has with the 🗹bi💞ke, the confidence he has with the bike - when you are winning, winning, winning, you feel that you are unstoppable. And this is the feeling he has now.

“He looks ꦑeasy on the bike, he knows how to use the bike. So right now, I don't see anyone who can ౠreally be faster than him.”

Quartararo was speaking after crossing ജthe finish line almost 20-seconds behind Bagnaia, in ninth place at the Red Bull Ring.

“I give my 100%, so I'm happy with ♏what𒐪 I did,” said the Monster Yamaha rider, before explaining why he dropped from eighth to twelfth in the early laps.

“At the beginning of the race, the grip that I had was super low. Then I lost a lot of positions, I made some mistakes to get back posit🌳ions, I had to push a lot on the tyres, and I destroyed the tyres.

“So in the end I g♏ave my 100%, andꦍ I'm happy with that.”

ꦺWinless for over a year and with only two podiums from 20 races so far this season, Quartararo admitted it had been difficult to reset his🐭 expectations to be happy with such results.

“To be honest, in the first part of the season - I've been fighting for the championship three years in a row, and now I'm fighting for th🎶e points. So of course the motivation was not especially there," he explained.

“But now I'm accepting to be fighting in this position, and it gives the motivation back to at le🅘ast give as much feedback as possible and at least try to enjoy a little bit.”

Quartararo was spending his second weekend with the new high-downforce Yamaha fairing and said some further ‘small updat🌠es’ might arrive for the upcoming Barcelona and Misano rounds.

Team-mate Franco Morಞbidelli finished Sunday’s race in 11th place, two seconds behind Quartararo. The Yamaha riders are eleventh (Quartar💛aro) and twelfth (Morbidelli) in the world championship.

The𝐆 five points the pair scored over Honda this weekend means Yamaha is now tied with HRC for last in the constructors’ standings.

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