{"id":272001,"date":"2025-11-08T23:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T23:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/272001\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T23:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T23:00:08","slug":"fabio-quartararos-great-portimao-sprint-harder-braking-lower-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/272001\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabio Quartararo\u2019s \u201cgreat\u201d Portimao Sprint: \u201cHarder braking, lower power\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fabio Quartararo pulled off another comeback on Saturday at the Portimao <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a>, transforming a difficult Friday into a front-row qualifying and fourth place in the Sprint.<\/p>\n<p>13th on day one, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/911998\/fabio-quartararo\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quartararo<\/a> fought through Qualifying 1 to secure third on the grid, then held fourth from start to finish in the Sprint.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman was unable to match the pace of race winner Alex Marquez, pole-sitter Marco Bezzecchi, or runner-up Pedro Acosta.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, he managed his tyres perfectly to keep the chasing factory Ducatis of Francesco Bagnaia and then Fabio di Giannantonio behind.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/podium-plus-yamaha.png\"   type=\"image\/png\" alt=\"Portimao MotoGP Sprint lap times: Podium plus Yamahas\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.79\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Portimao MotoGP Sprint lap times: Podium plus Yamahas<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy because yesterday was a really tough day. We turned it around in qualifying and especially the Sprint, and achieved a great race,\u201d said Quartararo.<\/p>\n<p>A switch to the hard front tyre proved key for his braking performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m a hard braker, and I wanted more support on the front to be able to brake a bit harder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, reducing engine output in some corners helped to stabilise the M1&#8217;s handling and aid tyre life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes we want to increase power in some corners, but our bike doesn&#8217;t accept it. It just shakes and spins. So we lowered the power, and I think tomorrow will be another step like that,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy pace was good from the first lap, but the three guys in front were faster. I was pushing myself to the maximum whilst also nursing the tyres.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did feel a bit of a drop, but I saw that Pecco was 1s behind me and then Diggia was 0.8s, so I pushed more on the last laps and could maintain the same gap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although five seconds behind race winner Alex Marquez, Quartararo finished nearly nine seconds ahead of Jack Miller, the next-best <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/monster-energy-yamaha-motogp\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yamaha<\/a> in 11th.<\/p>\n<p>Team director Massimo Meregalli said: \u201cFabio delivered an impressive turnaround, advancing through Q1 to secure third on the grid and then pushing hard for a strong fourth-place finish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to his determination and ability to perform when it matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabio Quartararo pulled off another comeback on Saturday at the Portimao MotoGP, transforming a difficult Friday into a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,16230,10671,806,805,803,804,85,3561],"class_list":["post-272001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fabio-quartararo","tag-monster-energy-yamaha-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-yamaha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}