Top 12 Finish for Quartararo at 2024 MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas

It was a challenging 20-lap Grand Prix of the Americas for Team ENEOS, where Fabio Quartararo made up lost ground from the opening lap to finish 12th; Álex Rins ended the race prematurely when he crashed out on lap 11.

Starting from P16, El Diablo used the opening stages at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) to wrestle his way up to P14, where he met a dangerous mid-pack that sent him wide, falling back to P20 before the end of the first lap.

By lap 8, the Frenchman was up to P17, closing in on Rins, and a lap later they swapped positions, allowing Quartararo to begin his chase for a championship point. He overtook Augusto Fernandez and by lap 12 was in P13. He closed a 3sec gap to Jack Miller to finish 12th on the final lap, 22.899sec from the winner.

“I lost a few positions on the first lap but expected worse,” Quartararo said. “My pace wasn’t good and we could’ve managed a better position, but we spent the race trying a lot of things to improve the bike, one I hadn’t tried before. Now we know what we need, and having that clear direction to work towards is positive.”

Starting from P15, Rins took the inside line on Turn 1 to emerge seventh after the chaos of 22 riders diving into the sharp lefthander, held the position on the opening lap but struggled to defend it. By lap 9 he dropped to 17th, but crashed out at the end of the third sector with 10 laps remaining.

“We had a good start, recovering eight positions on the first lap,” Rins explained. “Keeping the Warm-Up settings for the Race was a big mistake, which caused me to lose time. At the end I went over one bump with a little more pressure on the front brake, then lost the front.”

The 2024 results at COTA see Quartararo in 12th place in the overall standings with 19 points; Rins is 19th with 3 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP remains eighth in the team championship with 22 points, while Yamaha retains fourth in the manufacturer championship with 19 points.

NEXT RACE

Team ENEOS heads to the 2024 Gran Premio de España, held at Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto from April 26-28.