Quartararo: Focus on qualifying, still a chance of teams' title
After struggling to pass the Ducatis and then suffering his first race fall of the season in Portimao, Fabio Quartararo is out to make amends and finish his MotoGP title-winning season on a high at Valencia this weekend.
Yamaha's lack of horsepower relative to the Ducatis was evident in the Portimao battles, leading Quartararo to label top speed as his number one technical priority for 2022.
"Even if we lose in another area, we need to gain on top speed, because to overtake is just a nightmare. Well, we just can't overtake," he said. "I think [Yamaha] should push so much on the engine, because to be honest, for the future it's not going to be easy."
Quartararo's superb qualifying form, 14 front-row starts from 17 rounds, has helped mask the overtaking issue for much of this season and is uppermost in his mind for Valencia.
"We didn't really get out our full potential in Portimão, so I can't wait to start riding again and do better in Valencia," Quartararo said.
"This weekend I will focus a bit more on getting a good qualifying position. That will already make a big difference for the race. Overtaking at Valencia is not easy, so the further we are up the grid the better."
A good result this weekend would not only allow Quartararo to sign-off a dream debut season at the factory team on a high, but there is a slim chance it could also be enough to hand Yamaha the teams' title, should Ducati stumble.
"I really want to enjoy this race because it's the final GP of the season, and I want to end it with a good result. I also want to help my team. There's still a chance of the teams' title, so that gives me extra motivation to push hard in every session," Quartararo said.
"We want to end the year on a high note," said team director Massimo Meregalli. "We have set ourselves a simple goal: we want to give the fans one thrilling last race and score as many points as possible, and as a result we may even secure the 2021 team title.
"It‘s a tall order, but we are a team that will keep fighting until the very end."
Monster Yamaha starts the final race 28-points behind Ducati Lenovo, with a maximum of 45 points available.
That means, even if Quartararo wins and both Ducatis (Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller) fail to score, injured team-mate Franco Morbidelli would also need three points.
Morbidelli was a winner at Valencia last year, but is still far from fully fit after mid-season knee surgery and hasn't managed higher than 14th since being parachuted into the factory team, at Misano 1.
However, the Italian has often been the fastest Yamaha in wet conditions, which could feature at Valencia this weekend.
"We had a good weekend overall in Portimão, but then on the Sunday we missed a bit of speed compared to the previous days," said Morbidelli.
"The team have been working hard to analyse the data and I look forward to trying their solutions this weekend in Valencia. We are using these races as an extension of our pre-season testing for 2022.
"So, finding points of improvement and then solving them are positive developments and are exactly what we set out to do. All the work we have already done since the San Marino GP will be beneficial for us later on."
