Quartararo: Bagnaia ‘unstoppable’, a bit ‘Verstappen’

Bagnaia swept to his third double victory, Sprint and Sunday races, of the year at the Red Bull Ring, extending his title lead to 62 points over Jorge Martin.

The Italian’s dominance is even greater in terms of race victories, winning 9 of the 20 races so far, with next best Martin and Marco Bezzecchi on just 3 wins each.

Meanwhile, Ducati has only lost two out of the ten Sunday grands prix.

Quartararo, who beat Bagnaia to the 2021 crown before the Ducati rider turned the tables last season, said: “No [I don’t see anyone stopping Bagnaia]. I think he's a little bit ‘Verstappen’ now.”

Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen has won all but two races this year, with his Red Bull Racing team unbeaten to date.

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“I think also like the previous years, he [Bagnaia] has the best bike, yes - but you can have the best bike and not do the results. It's a combination,” Quartararo continued.

“And it looks like now the combination [Bagnaia] has with the bike, the confidence he has with the bike - when you are winning, winning, winning, you feel that you are unstoppable. And this is the feeling he has now.

“He looks easy on the bike, he knows how to use the bike. So right now, I don't see anyone who can really be faster than him.”

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Quartararo was speaking after crossing the finish line almost 20-seconds behind Bagnaia, in ninth place at the Red Bull Ring.

“I give my 100%, so I'm happy with what I did,” said the Monster Yamaha rider, before explaining why he dropped from eighth to twelfth in the early laps.

“At the beginning of the race, the grip that I had was super low. Then I lost a lot of positions, I made some mistakes to get back positions, I had to push a lot on the tyres, and I destroyed the tyres.

“So in the end I gave my 100%, and I'm happy with that.”

Winless for over a year and with only two podiums from 20 races so far this season, Quartararo admitted it had been difficult to reset his expectations to be happy with such results.

“To be honest, in the first part of the season - I've been fighting for the championship three years in a row, and now I'm fighting for the points. So of course the motivation was not especially there," he explained.

“But now I'm accepting to be fighting in this position, and it gives the motivation back to at least give as much feedback as possible and at least try to enjoy a little bit.”

Quartararo was spending his second weekend with the new high-downforce Yamaha fairing and said some further ‘small updates’ might arrive for the upcoming Barcelona and Misano rounds.

Team-mate Franco Morbidelli finished Sunday’s race in 11th place, two seconds behind Quartararo. The Yamaha riders are eleventh (Quartararo) and twelfth (Morbidelli) in the world championship.

The five points the pair scored over Honda this weekend means Yamaha is now tied with HRC for last in the constructors’ standings.