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Fabio Quartararo felt “someone hit me inside… it was Jack Miller’s head” | MotoGP

Online Niel November 3, 2024

Fabio Quartararo managed a good sixth place in the Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix, but not before he was involved in the first lap crash with Jack Miller that brought out the red flag.

Quartararo was hit head-on by Miller on the rear wheel of his Yamaha YZR-M1 as the KTM rider went down following contact with Brad Binder at the first turn.

“I didn’t even see what happened,” Quartararo said after the race.

“I feel like someone hit me inside and then it felt like a lock – it was Jack (Miller)’s head – so I didn’t know what it was like.

“I saw him in the paddock just before so I’m really happy he’s doing well because it was a really scary one.”

However, Quartararo was pleased with the resumption of the race as he scored another top-six finish for what looks to be an improving Yamaha team.

“I think we can be happy with the movement we had throughout the whole race with a front tire that wasn’t quite what we liked,” said Quartararo, after having to change front and rear tires from behind after the start.

“Then I started with a rear tire which was quite used – it had five laps unfortunately.

“I think the result was quite ok and we can be happy with the result we managed to achieve.”

Due to Quartararo’s involvement in Miller’s crash, he had to race the number two bike on the restart.

It took some time to change the settings on Quartararo’s second bike from the wet set-up that was prepared in anticipation of a possible flag-to-flag race. The engine in the spare bike was also older, both in mileage and specification, Quartararo suffered a problem on a new spec engine on Friday.

“They could make (the second bike) exactly (as the number one bike), but our wet set-up is completely different, so they had to change everything,” he said.

“It takes 15-20 minutes. The engine was slower because it was used more.