Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) will be hoping for a Brno bounce back after suffering his first Sunday afternoon crash of his sensational rookie MotoGP™ campaign at the Sachsenring and after a summer break, the Frenchman is fit and raring to go.
The Monster Energy Grand Prix České republiky will be the first time since the French GP that we see a fully fit Quartararo. And while the 20-year-old notched podiums in Barcelona and the Netherlands, arm pump surgery after his suffering at Mugello meant the Yamaha man wasn’t riding anywhere close to 100%. Then, a tank-slapper down ‘The Waterfall’ in Germany left Quartararo with a subluxation to his left shoulder. Nevertheless, the number 20 stuck it on the front row on Saturday before crashing out in the opening stages of the race.
However, three weeks of relaxing, healing and training now sees Quartararo in excellent shape heading to the Czech Republic. And the Automotodrom Brno is a circuit he likes: “Brno is a track I really like because it’s fast, it has fun uphill changes of direction and not so many straights. I’ve been able to have some rest over the break to help to heal my arm and shoulder, and I’ve also been training hard ready for the rest of the season.
“My arm and shoulder feel good now, and I’ve been doing some motocross to confirm it. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it’ll be during a race weekend again. My expectation will be the same as in the past few races, inside the top eight. We also know that we can be really fast in qualifying, so we can expect even better from that.”
09:55 local time (GMT+2) on Friday 2nd August is when you’ll first see Quartararo spinning some laps on a MotoGP™ thoroughbred for the first time in Brno, so tune in to get an early indication of how he gets on.