Fabio Quartararo, the championship leader, confesses that third place in the MotoGP German Grand Prix is "gold" to him after struggling all weekend on the factory Yamaha.
The Sachsenring was anticipated to favor the Yamahas, but Quartararo's Yamaha struggled throughout the weekend in the lengthy left-hand stretch of sector two. Despite qualifying on the front row and demonstrating excellent race pace in practice, Quartararo slipped to sixth in the early circuits and unable to overtake, leaving him too far behind in the race for the victory.
He finished almost six seconds behind winner Marc Marquez in third place, but has increased his championship lead to 22 points over Pramac's Johann Zarco, who finished ninth. “Yes, this podium is truly gold,” Quartararo added.
Quartararo acknowledges that his damage-limitation result is "important," but he believes he will not approach every race with same mindset, noting how Marquez handled their battle in Thailand in 2019 when his sixth MotoGP title was on the line. When questioned about the significance of his Germany result, Quartararo replied, "Yes, I believe it's significant, but I think I have quite a huge example for this."
“I recall Marc from Thailand. He only needed to finish ahead of [Andrea] Dovizioso to win the title, and we battled until the final turn, last minute. At the present, I believe that in order to win the championship, you must win and finish on the podium.