Fabio Quartararo believes that Marc Marquez deserves to be congratulated for his determination despite Honda’s MotoGP challenges, asking “who crashes five times just to try to be better?”
Marquez pulled out of Sunday’s German Grand Prix after crashing during the warm-up marking the fifth crash for the Repsol Honda rider this weekend.
The eight-time world champion suffered a minor thumb fracture as a result of the crash, but the MotoGP medical staff cleared him for racing.
Marquez has yet to make it to finish line in a grand prix, and his best finish still remains to be a podium in the Algarve sprint race. Marquez missed three races due to injuries sustained in a crash in Portugal.
“It’s difficult for him because I can totally understand that since 2020 with the injury,” Quartararo responded with regard to Marquez when asked. “He’s been on the podium since, of course… But, for me, he’s the best.
“I have no words about him. He’s giving his 100% all the time… Who crashes five times just to try to be better, to try to be on top?
“He’s mentally one of the strongest here, and one moment has arrived where you get injured.
“He broke his thumb this morning, so I can understand he’s pushing himself to the maximum… It’s strange to say this, but congratulations for what he is doing.”
Similar challenges have plagued Quartararo on the Yamaha in 2023; the 2021 world champion has only achieved one podium. As a result, he claims he can “understand” Marquez’s predicament and is confident that the rest of the paddock can as well.
“The thing is we check a little bit with what we have, the Honda is turning a little bit better than us, but on braking we are a little bit better than them,” he added.
“So, this can avoid the crashes a little bit. But you are on the limit all the time, and especially here I could not show the potential.
“Since the beginning of the year we are having tough moments and I can understand Marc 100%, and I think everyone here can understand it.”
Quartararo, who bet on using a soft tire while the majority of the field used the medium rear, battled to finish 13th in the German Grand Prix on Sunday. Despite the fact that he admits that this was a mistake, he acknowledges that his potential was only good for 10th place, therefore taking a chance was justified.
“To be honest, when I see the position we were, I wanted to try the soft tyre,” Quartararo said of his race on Sunday. “Totally wrong because from lap one basically.
“I needed a little bit more grip for the first laps and actually I didn’t have more grip.
“The tyre was dropping so much. Wrong decision with the tyres, but to finish P10 or P13 is not a big difference… was P10, but not more.”
