Petronas SRT Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo said that he wasn’t thinking about his surgically repaired arm, as he claimed his first MotoGP podium with a stunning second place finish at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The Frenchman went under the knife less than two weeks ago to fix an arm-pump issue that had come up since his move to MotoGP. Despite having the surgery just twelve days ago, Quartararo ended up claiming his first podium, finishing 2.6 seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez.
“With the adrenaline, fighting for our first podium I didn’t think about the pain, and I didn’t feel the pain,” said the 20-year-old.
“I feel a little bit now that the scar is a bit stretched, but nothing. To be on the podium you’re not thinking about the pain, just the race you did.”
Starting from pole, Quartararo ended up touching Marquez on the opening lap and falling down as low as eighth place. A crash on the second lap helped propel Quartararo into the top five and he fought past Rins and Petrucci to finish in second place, something he described as an amazing feeling.
“I think we managed to make our best start of the season, we only lost two positions,” he said.
“On corner four I made a little mistake. I hit Marc and we lost all the positions we didn’t lose in the other races. So I see the crash of everyone in front, but I didn’t see who make the mistake.
“Was a tough race because the Ducati and Suzuki on the straight was really fast. In the first sector I managed to overtake Danilo and I said I need to make a gap during the sectors to not be overtaken on the straight and I think we managed well.
“Being on the podium today is really good, an amazing feeling. But of course today like I said we take a lot of experience and I think it’s really important at the moment.
“Of course I was not one hundred percent but I was not fifty either. I was close to one hundred but I think we ride really fast during this weekend and we managed to get always in the top three in all the practice, so I think I couldn’t go faster than I did this weekend, but its nice to be riding after less than two weeks after the operation.”
