Marco Bezzecchi
Fabio Quartararo ‘didn’t care’ he crashed trying to fight Marc Marquez over the lead of the Grand Prix of Spain Sprint Race after registering his first pole position since 2022.
It had been 1,113 days since Quartararo last won a qualifying session before the Yamaha star denied Marquez a fifth P1 start of the 2025 season at Jerez. Only 0.033 seconds separated the Frenchman and the Spaniard in qualifying, yet Quartararo’s Sprint lasted under two laps.
Quartararo crashed trying to fight Marquez over the lead of the Jerez Sprint after attempting to cling on around the outside at Turn 6. The 26-year-old was unable to hold the 32-year-old behind down the back straight and being only one metre off the racing line then saw him fall.
Fabio Quartararo thinks ‘nobody’ else would try to go around the outside of Jerez’s Turn 6 after Spanish GP Sprint crash
Marquez had briefly got his Ducati ahead at the start of the Sprint at the Spanish GP, only for the six-time MotoGP champion to slip back into second at T1. Quartararo impressed Sylvain Guintoli with his start to the Jerez Sprint after diving straight back to stay ahead of Marquez.
But their fight only lasted halfway around Lap 2, and Quartararo did not care he crashed at T6 after taking his and Yamaha’s first pole since the 2022 Indonesian Grand Prix. Quartararo even believes ‘nobody’ would dare try to go around the outside at T6, but he felt he had to.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Fabio Quartararo from net worth to career stats
Quartararo said, via quotes by The Race: “I wanted to try to be leading the most as possible. Unfortunately, [it] was just one lap and a half. I felt Marc on the straight was really close to me [and] my bike started to shake. [I was] a little bit wide, and I lost the front.
“It’s a place [the outside of Turn 6] where, I would say, nobody goes there. But just trying to be as close to him, I lost the front, quite straight. But it’s three years that I’ve not been in this situation of leading a race, and I didn’t care.”
Marc Marquez ‘didn’t know’ Fabio Quartararo crashed at Jerez until Alex Marquez told him
Quartararo trying, in vain, to fight back around the outside of T6 also put the Yamaha rider in Marquez’s blind spot as the Ducati ace gained the lead of the Sprint Race at the Spanish GP. The Cervera-born ace also did not know the Nice native crashed until Alex Marquez told him.
Gresini rider Alex Marquez informed his older brother that Quartararo’s race had finished at T6 on L2 whilst they headed for the podium to celebrate Ducati rider Marc Marquez’s Sprint Race win at Jerez. Yet while their fight was short-lived, Marquez admired Quartararo’s effort.
“I didn’t know Fabio had crashed until my brother told me in the car,” Ducati’s Marquez said, via Motorsport.com. “When a rider overtakes you like Fabio did at Turn 1, it shows how much talent he has.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend
“I thought I had already overtaken him, but he got back to me very quickly. Little by little, when the Yamaha is up to speed, he’ll be one of our toughest rivals.”
Marquez and Quartararo have not been regular rivals since the Frenchman’s maiden season in the premier class back in 2019. While riding for Petronas Yamaha SRT, Quartararo secured six pole positions and seven podium finishes but could not achieve his debut Grand Prix win.
Quartararo’s first Grand Prix win arrived in the first round of 2020 at the Grand Prix of Spain. But while the Frenchman celebrated winning the race at Jerez that season, Marquez’s career almost finished with his crash at the 2020 Spanish GP fighting over third with four laps to go.
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