Following his impressive P.2 finish in today’s practice session, we had the opportunity to speak with Fabio Quartararo. The Yamaha rider shared his thoughts on the bike’s performance, track conditions and the atmosphere. Calm and focused, Quartararo expressed confidence heading into qualifying, emphasizing the importance of consistency and teamwork in maintaining his momentum.
Fabio Quartararo: “I think it’s a positive day, we had a good pace on one lap and also on the long pace. So we can be pretty happy and hopefully tomorrow we can make another step forward.”
Question: Today is better than the Friday at Jerez ?
FQ: “Yes, much better because Jerez was a little bit a surprise for us. We never expected to be fighting quite high and make one good lap. Here was more natural like from the beginning I could make good pace, the time attack was also natural ,we went fast and lot of riders are really fast but for us if we only look at us, I am felling better than in Jerez.”
Question: Is it possible do make pole tomorrow ?
FQ: “It’s always possible and especially because I am able to really disconnect my brain on one lap and this is something when you take the confidence on the bike, it’s something that I like. Let’s see how much I can disconnect and how good we can make the lap. The realistic goal is to be on the front row and before P.5.”
Question: Did you expect to be so close to the record?
FQ : “Being honest yes, because we improved 1.5 seconds in Qatar compare to last year, 1.4 seconds in Jerez and I didn’t expect to make P2 but I expect the lap record to be really close. We feel on one lap we have made a big step compare to last year.”
Question: The engine confirmed ?
FQ: “Yes the engine confirmed ! Here the straight is quite short but I think it’s positive because we can see it’s better, it doesn’t affect on anything just a little bit of free time so it’s good.”
Question: How about the support here in France ?
FQ: “I can really hear the crowd it’s really special and we will try to make a great weekend and a great race tomorrow.”
Question: How have you found the grip level in Le Mans this year ?
FQ: “The grip level on this track is always really high and this is why we are performing, because we need to be realistic that on track where there is low grip and tire degradation we are more struggling. So we have to take the opportunity where we have good grip and a small straight because we can really perform.”