Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was lost for words after achieving his fifth victory of 2021 at Silverstone on Sunday, the Frenchman in awe of the fast-paced BritishGP.

“I have no words. Honestly it was one of the best races I ever did, the pace was so fast,” Quartararo said as the celebrations died down.

“It was so great, first of all to see all the crowd, was a pleasure to share these moments with them. I nearly crashed going into the grass, one moment, but the most important thing is that we have a victory, and we take I think a lot of points. 65 points. It feels great.”

Having run impressive pace throughout the British weekend, missed out on the pole position by a mere 0.036s and started from the front row, Quartararo was confident of his abilities ahead of the 20-lap race. Although under no illusion that it would be easy - the Frenchman was acutely aware of the coming battle from at least one of his eventual podium challengers - he openly admits he was expecting to contest the victory from the outset.

“To be honest, yes. Was all about making a good start and let's see what we could do but our pace was a little bit stronger than the others, to be honest,” he said. “The one that was looking quite strong was Aleix. This morning, all the weekend he was fast, and when he overtake me on the first lap, I say ‘he will be the one to fight ‘but then the other Alex, Rins was there. Honestly we know that our pace with really used tyres was great so I expect to fight for the victory today.

The opening action saw Quartararo fourth, behind Pecco Bagnaia, and the two Espargaro brothers. Picking off the Ducati and Aprilia in the opening laps, the Yamaha took his change for the lead at Farm curve - the sight of numerous crashes across the weekend - with a strong and unexpected overtake on the Repsol Honda.

“It was a great overtake and I was feeling great there,” Quartararo explained. “Pol, on this lap, had some issue. I don't know what happened because he pulled the leg out on the straight and he was quite slow in sector two so maybe happen something to him. But yeah, I was feeling so great on overtakes with the bike and that's why we are here.

"I got a great start. I was a bit scared about the device because I was using front and rear, but I managed to get the really great start, second, but then on the straight I saw Aleix overtaking me but I didn't see Bagnaia. The first laps was a bit tricky because on turn eight, I go super wide, but at the end I was feeling so good.

“The massive improvement from last year is the front feeling and to overtake like where I overtook Pol, you need to have confidence on that corner and this is why. I think I bring that confidence and just so happy about my race. I expect some corners to be worst and the corner I was thinking that was gonna be bad was okay, so I'm really happy.

“I'm not really focused on the championship but when you look, you start with 47 [points advantage] then you go to 65, of course, is the most important. Before to start that race I was telling myself to don't think about the chairmanship, at least until after Misano, and actually right now I think I don't want to think anymore, because I'm enjoying and I feel good on the bike. So I'm going to the next one like if it was the first one, and I'm enjoying so I'm super happy.

"I will not change my approach because I'm enjoying so much to fight for the victories, then the championship is something that will come if you make that result. So at the moment, my approach is still the same.

“Of course if in one race I feel like it's not possible, I will not make stupid mistakes. So my approach is still the same but of course you know that you have a little bit more margin to play. My approach will be to arrive on the track and see our potential and if we have the opportunity, we will fight for the victory and for the podium.

"Aragon is a track that I never, I've been fast because last year we made pole position, but is a track that I don't feel great. Never been really consistent on that track and I think this year is the perfect moment to really take it on. To try to improve our consistency there, and also have the confidence we have on the front this year, I think we can make a massive step.

“Austria was a track that we struggled a lot last year, Aragon too, so I think we have made a big step in Austria, so I think we will do it also in Aragon.”