Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo fought tenaciously over the 20 laps of this weekend’s Grand Prix of the Americas to collect seventh place and nine valuable championship points at the finish. Teammate Franco Morbidelli was unfortunate to miss out on a points scoring finish, after being demoted from 15th to 16th for exceeding track limits on the final lap.
Returning to America, Quartararo made a strong start as he looked to get his elbows out early on. Running inside the top six, the Frenchman found himself caught up in a battle with Alex Rins and Joan Mir, eventually relinquishing the positions on lap five – dropping to eighth.
Settling into a rhythm, the 22-year-old didn’t let the leading group out of sight and began to push in the second half of the race. Closing the gap to compatriot Johann Zarco to just two-tenths, the Yamaha rider made his move at turn seven with an aggressive pass up the inside. Slipping behind Marc Marquez, Quartararo repeated his turn seven move on Jorge Martin, reclaiming seventh place.
Keeping the pressure on Marquez, the rider from Nice aimed to get ahead, but two unsuccessful manoeuvres left the 2021 World Champion in seventh, where he eventually finished.
WithU Yamaha RNF Racing’s Andrea Dovizioso didn’t have the Grand Prix he wished for. Promising performances over the weekend left the Italian hopeful of a strong result, but he found the going tough in the windier conditions – finishing in 15th. The experienced Italian didn’t get the best of starts and was 17th at the mid-way stage. Fighting his way up to 15th, Dovizioso conceded a position to Morbidelli, but would later get it back after Morbidelli was handed a penalty.
Looking to bounce back from a puncture in Argentina, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Franco Morbidelli also underwent a tough Texan encounter. The Italian pushed hard throughout the 20-lap race, arriving at the chequered flag in 15th, but was demoted to 16th for exceeding track limits on the final lap.
South Africa’s Darryn Binder finished the American Grand Prix in 22nd position after an electronics issue forced him to pull into the pits with four laps remaining.
Fabio Quartararo heads to Europe in two weeks’ time sat fifth in the riders’ standings with 44 points in total, while Morbidelli, Dovizioso and Binder sit in 15th, 19th and 21st place respectively.
MotoGP heads to the iconic Portimao circuit in two weeks’ time as the MotoGP circus returns to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve from April 22-24 for the Grande Prémio de Portugal.
Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 7th
“At the beginning of the race, I had a little bit of the same problem I had in Argentina, but much less. That made me miss some grip compared to the others, but I think I did quite okay. In the beginning it’s more difficult to defend your position because everyone is close together, but I think we did a good race. I enjoyed it a lot! We battled really hard and, even if it was for sixth position, I enjoyed the battle with Marc. Even though we struggled quite a bit this weekend, this race was beneficial to me: I learn much more from these kind of races than I did in some of the races that I have won. Today I learned a lot, and I’m happy. We have pushed ourselves to the limit. Now we’re going to Europe, which has better tracks for us, I think. I’m just going to do my best to fight for the championship.”
Andrea Dovizioso – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, 15th
“I expected a bit more. I’m honestly very disappointed. My feeling is not improving while trying to reduce the gap and I can’t be happy about that. I tried to be consistent, but when you don’t ride in a relaxed way, you use more energy in the practices already, so I didn’t have a lot of energy left for the race itself. I was fighting with Marini, Oliveira and Morbidelli, but we haven’t been fast and that’s not a good feeling. At the end, we got one point, but the 29 seconds is the fact that we have to check. The gap to the top is big. I’m not happy, but I didn’t have the feeling to be any faster.”
Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 16th
” It was a tricky race because finally we used a different setting for the warm-up, but we couldn’t try it, so I needed to try it in the race. Actually, I wasn’t feeling so bad, but it needed adjustments, and I needed to learn how to ride with it during the race. So, I learned it step by step and lap by lap. It was nice, because I could overtake, that’s positive. We will keep working and trying to understand what we need, and we will try to get back stronger in Portimao.”
Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, 22nd
“All together it has been a difficult weekend, I crashed a couple of times, which definitely did not help with my confidence going into the race. Anyway, I started the race and made a mistake at the beginning, which made me fall back a couple of position. I then caught back up to a couple of guys and was fighting with the other rookies for a while, unfortunately we had a little technical issue and I had to stop at the pit lane with three laps to go. Overall, I felt like I learned a lot from this weekend. It’s been a really hard weekend physically and riding this bike around this track is super demanding. I’m just glad I was able to get a lot of laps and now I know exactly on what I need to work on, get stronger and fitter and be ready for Portimao.”
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, Team Director
“We already expected a tough race, and both riders got the maximum out of today‘s race in this current situation. Fabio rode both defensively and on the attack. He always gives his 100%, but today he added another 10% if possible. For Franco the race was even more difficult because he started from 19th place, which is far from ideal. But as the race progressed, he got more and more used to a new setting that he was trying, and he was able to overtake. Unfortunately, he lost the championship point he scored because of a penalty. We‘re not satisfied with our results so far after the first four races overseas. We are looking forward to going back to Europe to circuits that suit us better.”
Razlan Razali – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, Founder & Team Principal
“Overall, it was a difficult weekend for both of our riders, Andrea and Darryn. However, we are a bit happy with a single point we finally got from Andrea. It was a tough race for Darryn, who struggled all weekend trying to understand the bike at this demanding Circuit of the Americas. We just have to take away the good points and get ready for the first European race in two weeks’ time in Portimao. In summary, it has been a challenging back to back rounds in Termas de Rio Hondo and here in Texas, but we have got valuable data that we can look into in order to improve ourselves for the remainder of the races. We look forward to Portugal, will just get back to work and do the best we can.”
Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas result
- Enea Bastianini – Gresini Racing MotoGP
- Alex Rins – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +2.058
- Jack Miller – Ducati Lenovo Team +2.312
- Joan Mir – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +3.975
- Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo Team +6.045
- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team +6.617
- Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +6.760
- Jorge Martin – Pramac Racing +8.441
- Johann Zarco – Pramac Racing +12.375
- Maverick Viñales – Aprilia Racing 12.642
- Aleix Espargaro – Aprila Racing +12.947
- Brad Binder – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +13.376
- Pol Espargaro – Repsol Honda Team +17.961
- Takaaki Nakagami – LCR Honda IDEMITSU +18.770
- Andrea Dovizioso – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team +29.319
- Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +29.129
- Luca Marini – Mooney VR46 Racing Team +29.630
- Miguel Oliveira – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +32.002
- Raul Fernandez – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing +37.062
- Remy Gardner – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing +42.442
- Fabio Di Giannantonio – Gresini Racing MotoGP +42.887
- Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team +102.171
- Alex Marquez – LCR Honda Castrol
- Marco Bezzecchi – Mooney VR46 Racing Team
2022 MotoGP World Championship Standings
- Enea Bastianini – Gresini Racing MotoGP 61 points
- Alex Rins – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 56 points
- Aleix Espargaro – Aprilia Racing 50 points
- Joan Mir – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 46 points
- Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 44 points
- Brad Binder – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 42 points
- Jack Miller – Ducati Lenovo Team 31 points
- Johann Zarco – Pramac Racing 31 points
- Miguel Oliveira – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 28 points
- Jorge Martin – Pramac Racing 28 points
- Pol Espargaro – Repsol Honda Team 23 points
- Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo Team 23 points
- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team 21 points
- Maverick Viñales – Aprilia Racing 19 points
- Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 15 points
- Takaaki Nakagami – LCR Honda IDEMITSU 12 points
- Luca Marini – Mooney VR46 Racing Team 10 points
- Marco Bezzecchi – Mooney VR46 Racing Team 7 points
- Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 6 points
- Alex Marquez – LCR Honda Castrol 4 points
- Andrea Dovizioso – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 2 points
- Remy Gardner – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing 1 point
- Raul Fernandez – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing 0 points
- Fabio Di Giannantonio – Gresini Racing 0 points
25. Stefan Bradl – Honda HRC 0 points
