Petronas Yamaha's Fabio Quatararo was forced to circuate at the same speed at Moto2 bikes by the end of yesterday's Catalan MotoGP and believes that in a couple more laps, he would have been caught and passed by Joan Mir and possibly  team-mate Alex Rins.

Quartarao set a scorching pace as he opened a gap on the pack, only dropping into the 1'41s on lap 16 but by the time lap 23 came around, he was into the 1'43s which was Moto2 winner Luca Marini's pace. Meanwhile, Suzuki's Mir ran a 1'42.181 on his 23rd lap and Rins did a 1'42.362.

“It was a difficult race. I made a great start but I was fourth, then Jack made a mistake and it was the perfect moment to overtak," said Quartararo.

"When I took the lead from lap six, our pace was really fast and too fast to keep the tyre fresh for the end. At the end, I was three seconds slower but not because I was in control, I was at maximum and unfortunately it’s difficult to understand because the two guys here were faster than me.

“It was so important to make the first half of the race in the best condition, we have to be happy about our job today because after five races where we had a tough time. We learned many things but it is good to be back on the podium.

"In the first part of the race I was not expecting the grip to be that good because the lap time was really fast. I felt a little bit less grip but we managed to get those fast laps, just the problem at the end. I dropped from 41, to 42 and then to 43 in the last three laps.

“Two more laps and I would have been doing the lap time of the Moto3 guys. Lap 25 I think these guys would have overtaken me.”