Quartararo Fights for P9 Finish at 2024 MotoGP Catalunya

The Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya MotoGP race was another difficult challenge for Team ENEOS / Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP riders Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins. Though he originally finished P10 at the finish line, Enea Bastianini failed to complete a ride-through penalty, allowing Quartararo to move up to P9 in the final results and earning 7 points. Rins had a more difficult time, finishing the race in P20.

Launching from P17, the Frenchman moved up to P13 after the opening lap, and dealt with several opponents crashing out in the first half of the race, so his live timing ranking held mostly at P13.

The second half of the race was an entirely different story: with seven laps remaining, El Diablo overtook Maverick Vińales, and on that same lap, Bastianini completed the first of his double long-lap penalty, and Franco Morbidelli crashed. Suddenly Quartararo was in P10, and though Bastianinin overtook him again on lap 20, the Italian still had another long-lap penalty to complete. After dipping down to P12, Quartararo kept his cool, passing Marco Bezzecchi and Miguel Oliveira on the last lap to retake P10, defending it masterfully to the finish line, 20.477sec from the winner. Bastianini’s inability to finish the double long lap resulted in a ride-through penalty (that he also failed to complete), pushing him back to P18, moving Quartararo up to ninth place.

“This was a really good race, and the feeling was better than expected,” said Quartararo. “In Le Mans the pace was good; here it was great. I feel like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

While he had a good start from P8, Rins nearly clipped Jorge Martin to cause a less than perfect entry into Turn 1, causing him to take evasive action that ended up in the long-lap penalty area. Once back on track, the hometown hero fell back to the tail of the pack. The disappointing start was a setback but the Spanish rider wanted to give the crowd a good show. He started his charge and by lap 12 he was in P15 and within points. However, wheelspin prevented him from making further progress, and during the final seven laps, Rins lost ground again, falling back to P20, crossing the finish line 1:03.428sec from first.

“The launch from P8 wasn’t bad but I was so close to hitting [Jorge] Martin that I had to go into the long lap, which put me into last place,” Rins explained. “I tried to recover positions and ride smoothly to manage the tire but then the bike and tires started behaving weirdly. I started to spin a lot in ways that never happened like that before.”

Following the Catalunya race, Quartararo is now 12th in the overall standings with 32 points; Rins is 21st with 7 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP holds ninth in the team championship with 39 points, and Yamaha continues to hold fourth in the manufacturer championship with 35 points.

NEXT RACE

Team ENEOS heads to the Gran Premio d’Italia Brembo at Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy from May 31-June 2, 2024.