• Chronicle: Fabio Quartararo fills the gap: second victory in a row at Jerez

« Marc Márquez is a very fast driver, but I can't compare myself. I have to win a lot before I can do it », commented a boy, Fabio Quartararo , in an interview with EL MUNDO when he was only 15 years old. It was the end of 2014 and he had spent the whole year, as he did in 2013, despairing of his rivals in the Spanish Speed ​​Championship (CEV). Despite it seems obvious, in that statement about Marquez - "I have to win long before I can compare myself" - Quartararo was wrong and it would take five years to understand it. For him, as for all the aspiring MotoGP champions, the path was only one: to win in Moto3, to win in Moto2 and, then, the top. But in reality, as you now know, success can be achieved in several ways.

That Quartararo is today the leader of the World Cup, that he has won the first two races in Jerez and that he threatens the future of Marc Márquez is understandable by his talent, but it is a rarity in motorcycling. Because right now the Frenchman should continue in Moto2 or he could have gone to the Superbike World Championship or some lower category.

Of Sicilian descent, his father Etienne was a locksmith in Nice and an amateur pilot in the 1980s, but it was his uncle Alain who got on a motorcycle at the age of three, who discovered his gift. Soon after there was no championship in France to contain him and all that remained was to cross the border. From a very young age, Quartararo competed in Spain, where he was sponsored by a family from Alfás del Pi and where, with milestones such as being the first RACC-sponsored foreigner or the youngest CEV champion, he won a contract in Moto3. "The new Marquez", was announced about his arrival in 2015 and damn announcement.

In his second World Cup race, Quartararo took the podium, in the seventh he repeated, but then he entered a spiral of bad decisions, excess expectations, injuries and problems with his teams that he would not leave in years. Specifically until June 17, 2018. That day, after suffering a lot in Moto3 and Moto2, Quartararo won a race, his first, in Montmeló, mid-season, and it turned out that it was the perfect time to do it, that it would save his race. When he won, Dani Pedrosa had just given up racing on the Yamaha satellite team in MotoGP, and when he won, the team had decided to bet instead on some talented youngster.

The rest is history. Last year, in his debut with the majors, he amazed with six poles and seven podiums - he was fifth overall - and this year he is even more serene, more mature. The last season, Márquez made him suffer the unspeakable in multiple direct duels, in Misano or in Thailand, and now he seems more prepared. With a style very different from Márquez, with hardly any inclination, driving on the lines, imitating the piloting of the best Jorge Lorenzo , now Quartararo hopes that the current champion will recover to be able to measure himself from you to you.

«With Marc it will be more difficult to win, but the good thing is that someone takes you to your limit. If I am here today it is because last year Marc took me to my limit many times », commented the Frenchman this Sunday after repeating the script from the previous week: demarcation in the first laps and solo career. He could not be pursued by Maverick Viñales , who took advantage of the breakdown of Francesco Bagnaia to finish second, nor Valentino Rossi , who returned to the podium at the age of 41.

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  • Marc Márquez
  • Dani Pedrosa
  • Valentino Rossi
  • Thailand
  • France
  • Spain
  • Jorge Lorenzo
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