The signs Quartararo’s 2022 MotoGP title is slipping away from him

Having come away from the Mugello/Catalunya double-header with 45 points out of a total of 50 at two venues he was expected to suffer at, and a victory in Germany, while Francesco Bagnaia suffered two DNFs in three races and Aleix Espargaro threw away a podium in Barcelona due to a lap count gaffe, Fabio Quartararo looked well on his way to MotoGP title number two.

Heading to Assen, Quartararo’s championship lead stood at 34 over Espargaro and 91 over Bagnaia. An uncharacteristic crash while passing the former in the Dutch GP – and a second crash which ultimately ended his race early – coupled with a fightback to fourth from Espargaro saw Quartararo’s lead cut to 21 points going into the summer break.

A victory for Bagnaia at Assen reduced his deficit to 66, while Quartararo had to contend with a long lap penalty for Silverstone – a punishment he spent the entire British GP weekend decrying – for his Espargaro collision.

Quartararo was clearly the quickest on race pace in practice at Silverstone as he did all of his work on the medium rear tyre. Espargaro surely would have been a bigger threat in the race than he was had it not been for a violent 115mph crash at Farm Curve in FP4 which left him with battered feet.

For all of his practice of the long lap loop situated on the outside of the Loop at Turn 14 throughout the weekend, two factors prior to the race would ultimately make that meaningless.

The first was the fact he couldn’t qualify on the front row, Quartararo only quick enough for fourth as he had “nothing more” for a pole charge to topple compatriot Johann Zarco on the Pramac Ducati.

The second was his and Yamaha’s decision not to test the hard rear tyre. This was the tyre that Espargaro crashed on in FP4, and those who did test it noted it needed a few laps to get up to working temperature. Quartararo felt the medium was the best option and his pace on it was strong. But Sunday saw the hottest temperatures of the weekend as the Silverstone circuit bathed in glorious sunshine that pushed track temperatures up to 43 degrees Celsius. Once he’d served his long lap penalty, that medium tyre would fry.

“[I’m] disappointed because I thought the long lap would have penalised me much more, and finally it was not so bad,” a disgruntled Quartararo said after finishing the race eighth.

“But just the rear tyre was so bad and behind riders we cannot ride our bike. It’s just a nightmare. If it’s just one bike, it’s ok, but if there is more than one bike the rear tyre was so hot and it loses performance, then it goes down and then you are riding in a totally different way to the others. And for us to then overtake is a nightmare.”

Quartararo's long lap penalty sent his momentum backwards in the pack

Photo by: Dorna

Quartararo launched from fourth to second off the line – almost coming to blows with former team-mate and current Aprilia rider Maverick Vinales – but couldn’t find a way through on early leader Zarco before he had to serve his long lap penalty on lap four.

Only able to get the gap to Miller behind out to just over four tenths, when he peeled off into the penalty lane, Quartararo dropped to fifth behind Miller, Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Bagnaia, having lost 1.6s and not the 0.8s Espargaro predicted pre-weekend when he branded the loop "a joke".

From here he only went backwards as the Yamaha’s lack of top speed and inability to run its own lines when following other riders made it impossible to overtake. He took the chequered flag 3.819s behind Bagnaia, down in eighth. Without the long lap, he feels he could have stayed with Zarco – and would have ultimately inherited a lead he likely wouldn’t have lost based on practice form when the Pramac rider crashed out on lap five at Vale.

Quartararo’s woes were compounded by the fact that he only just beat a hobbled Espargaro behind in ninth. The Aprilia rider took part in qualifying straight after his FP4 crash despite having to be helped into the Silverstone medical centre by his Aprilia team as he was unable to put pressure on his feet.

"The rear tyre was so bad and behind riders we cannot ride our bike. It’s just a nightmare. If it’s just one bike, it’s ok, but if there is more than one bike the rear tyre was so hot and it loses performance" Fabio Quartararo

Escaping serious injury, he qualified sixth and was eventually cleared to race. But there was no fairy tale fighting as he battled “zero traction” on the right side of his hard rear tyre. This lack of traction ultimately compromised him into the right-handed Abbey corner, which – along with some battered confidence - slowed him up through Farm into the Village braking zone where so much overtaking was done.

“No excuses, I was not fast today and it was not for the pain,” Espargaro conceded. “I didn’t have pain [in my feet]. But I couldn’t really move freely on the bike, I was sore on the legs, on the back, so I couldn’t really help the bike to turn on the right corners. I had zero traction on the right side and everybody overtook me on the corner I crashed because I lost a lot of speed there. So, the crash definitely didn’t help.”

This didn’t stop Espargaro making an “impossible” overtaking attempt on Quartararo on the last lap, but ultimately came up just short. But after a crash that could have easily taken him out of the grand prix, Espargaro has given up just one point to Quartararo – the championship lead for the Yamaha rider just 22 points now.

After his heavy crash in practice, Aleix Espargaro's charge was blunted to ninth place

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

What baffled Espargaro about the race more than his own woes was the fact that the Ducatis were so strong. Bagnaia, in particular, admitted after qualifying fifth that he needed at least 0.2s per lap more to be a contender in the battle for victory. Zarco was the strongest of the Desmosedicis in practice, but it would be Bagnaia who would win the day for Ducati.

Not “competitive like I was expecting” and “accepting a top five finish” coming into the race, finding something Bagnaia’s the hard rear tyre in warm-up instead of the medium he used in FP4 and the medium front transformed his weekend. As his rear grip faded, the medium front allowed him to compensate by pushing harder into the corners. When Aprilia’s Vinales hounded him in the closing stages, making an overtaking attempt at the lead on the penultimate tour at Village, Bagnaia was equipped to repel.

Bagnaia was also boosted by some legendary advice, as both his mentor Valentino Rossi and double world champion Casey Stoner offered him some insight into how to better ride the Silverstone circuit.

“This weekend I spoke a lot with Valentino,” Bagnaia said. “He told me a lot to understand better the situation, because I was a bit in trouble at the weekend. It’s not easy from his point of view because he’s at home looking at the screen at the TV, but he helped me to understand the tyres, to understand the temperature with the tyres, he helped me a lot.

“To Casey, I just asked if in the past he had done something different in this track that helped him to be more competitive. And this morning he sent me a message and I just tried to do something in the way he had done in the past and was good, but maybe not for the tyre we have now. But in any case, I’m very glad to have these kind of people around me at my disposal. He was great at finding traction at the exit of the corner, and this was his suggestion for today.”

Bagnaia’s unlikely win now puts him back to third in the standings and just 49 behind Quartararo as he comes upon a strong phase of the championship for himself and the Ducati, with Red Bull Ring and Misano the next two events.

After a sluggish early season, Bagnaia now finally looks to have figured out what the GP22 really needs to be competitive. And its coinciding with a tough period for Quartararo could be crucial. Espargaro and the Aprilia have been strong all year and Silverstone was no exception, while he now has a genuine tailgunner in Vinales to help him out.

After Zarco crashed out Bagnaia led the Ducati charge to Silverstone victory, aided by advice from Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner

Photo by: Dorna

Quartararo left Silverstone pessimistic. While he feels he can be fast in all of the coming eight races, he admits none of them suit the current Yamaha package.

“I think we can be fast in really all of the tracks, but really ones that suit us – there is no track,” he said. “There is all tracks with a lot of acceleration and long straights. Of course, we didn’t go to Japan last year, we didn’t go to Thailand. But it’s full of accelerations and long straights. Let’s see what is going on.”

Bagnaia may not be considering himself a championship contender still at this stage, but Quartararo believes Ducati has the capacity to overhaul Yamaha easily now, while Espargaro thinks the title race is wide open at this stage.

“If you check the last two races, we nearly lose two races [to him],” Quartararo noted. “Of course I saw Pecco in much more competition for the title. But it’s something that we need to get used to because they [Ducati] have much more experience than us, they have much more bikes.

"Everything is open. We’ll have a very, very tight last eight races of the championship" Aleix Espargaro

“As soon as we arrive on the Friday we are always fast because our bike is really, really similar to the previous years. And of course, the more races they do, the more they know their bikes and they can… of course on Friday a little bit slower, but as soon as we make more laps and more days they are much faster than us.”

Espargaro added: “I think race by race if the Ducatis are starting to improve and I’m able to maintain my high level and also Maverick is able to put my bike on top, this is more pressure for the leader. So, that’s good for me.

“I think they [Ducati] really made a big step in the championship. It’s not going to be easy for them because they have two races of disadvantage, but they have a lot of bikes and they can do a lot of team work. And now we go to two tracks which are good for Pecco in Austria and Misano, so I think everything is open. So, I think we’ll have a very, very tight last eight races of the championship.”

What’s clear is that in 2022 Quartararo has done a fantastic job in surmounting the deficiencies of the Yamaha package underneath him. But in a championship as tight as MotoGP is now, that simply won’t be enough.

Can Quartararo be caught by Espargaro or Bagnaia?

Photo by: Dorna