MotoGP, Qatar J2: Lewis Hamilton now knows the name of Fabio Quartararo

fabio quartararo, once again, did the job on a new day of Qatar Grand Prix. The first of the season and in MotoGP for the 19-year-old Frenchman. The Petronas Yamaha rider was perfect in inviting himself to the feast of the fight for the top position before finishing a very good fifth. And with wisdom and maturity please, as he will explain it to you. A man who came to see Rossi discovered him and now knows his name: Lewis Hamilton...

During his second day at Losail, the youngest MotoGP rider further improved his best time to place himself on the second row of the starting grid for the Qatar Grand Prix. This is only 0.400 seconds from pole position Casa Particular in Viñales. He will make his racing debut in the premier category of the Losail International Circuit tomorrow, Sunday.

« I'm really happy with the qualifications. We knew we were fast yesterday but the conditions were better on Friday ", said Quarterly. " We saw during FP2 that we could go faster than today, but we were at the limit, like everyone else at turn 2. I'm happy to have done this P5 and also not to have fallen ».

« My goal was to be in the top eight or nine, we knew it was difficult to be there because there were some very good drivers in Q2. When I saw that I had achieved a 54.3s in the first laps, I thought that I was P3 or P4 and I said to myself “that's very good”. When I put the second set of tires on, I said okay, I have to improve, because everyone will be hitting a low of 1'54 seconds or a high of 1'53 seconds. We therefore went to less than 1'54 seconds ».

Quarterly admitted he took precautions due to the difficult conditions at Turn 2, where four drivers crashed during qualifying. The sign of maturity which helped him secure his place despite being the youngest in the 2019 grid.

« When you see drivers crashing in turns one, five, six or seven, you think they made a mistake ", did he declare. " But when everyone crashes in the second turn, you have to pay attention to this turn. It's also a qualification so you have to be on the limit and be careful. It was really hard to deal with ».

So what about the race? Quarterly recognizes that he is entering MotoGP with many unknowns, and is therefore primarily keen to follow the leading pack to gain essential knowledge in race management. But he knows he also has good racing pace… “ I have my pace and I've checked the pace of others, but I'm just thinking about trying to keep up with them,” he said. “We can be with them but we don't know about the last five rounds, that's the question ».

« Also, you have to learn how to manage the MotoGP race, because when you do a race simulation, sometimes you are alone or sometimes you have other riders with a six-second lead. But in the race, there are 22 runners at the start. We'll see what happens. What's hard is I don't have any experience, but we'll learn as we go ". he ends on crash.net.

MotoGP, Qatar J2: times

1	12	Maverick VIÑALES	Yamaha	1'53.546
2	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'53.744	0.198	0.198
3	93	Marc MÁRQUEZ	Honda	1'53.745	0.199	0.001
4	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'53.809	0.263	0.064
5	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	Yamaha	1'53.946	0.400	0.137
6	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'54.095	0.549	0.149
7	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ducati	1'54.200	0.654	0.105
8	21	Frank MORBIDELLI	Yamaha	1'54.236	0.690	0.036
9	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	Honda	1'54.239	0.693	0.003
10	42	Alex RINS	Suzuki	1'54.257	0.711	0.018
11	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1'54.390	0.844	0.133
12	41	Aleix ESPARGARÓ	Aprilia	1'54.917	1.371	0.527
		Q1 Results:
Q2	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'54.270
Q2	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	Honda	1'54.431	0.161	0.161
13	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1'54.472	0.202	0.041
14	46	Valentino ROSSI	Yamaha	1'54.537	0.267	0.065
15	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	1'54.563	0.293	0.026
16	44	Pol ESPARGARÓ	KTM	1'54.740	0.470	0.177
17	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	KTM	1'55.122	0.852	0.382
18	53	Tito RABAT	Ducati	1'55.428	1.158	0.306
19	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	1'55.464	1.194	0.036
20	17	Karel ABRAHAM	Ducati	1'55.642	1.372	0.178
21	5	johann zarco	KTM	1'55.797	1.527	0.155
22	55	Hafiz Syahrin	KTM	1'55.937	1.667	0.140
23	38	Bradley SMITH	Aprilia	1'56.036	1.766	0.099