Quartararo Continues Impressive Form at Czech Republic GP

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 (Bernama) -- Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team (SRT) rider Fabio Quartararo continued his impressive form, finishing in seventh place in the Czech Republic MotoGP at the Brno Circuit on Sunday. The 20-year-old French rookie who chalked podium finishes at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP and Dutch GP this season, clocked 39 minutes 36.522 seconds in the 20-lap race. His teammate, Franco Morbidelli of Italy, however, suffered a misfortune, failing to finish the race when he was involved in an incident with other riders in the first lap. In a statement issued by the team, Quartararo was quoted as saying that he was happy with the result, especially when he emerged as the top rookie in the race. "It’s the first race where I felt like I really had to work to save the tyres, and I learned a lot from doing that. "The conditions were strange and I was a little bit stressed in the beginning because I don’t have much experience, but we’re happy with our result. I overtook a few riders in the race and I learned a lot from doing that, about how to save the tyres so I can be more aggressive when I need to," he said. Meanwhile, Petronas Yamaha SRT Team Principal, Razali Razali said he was delighted with Quartararo's performance, adding that it was unfortunate that Morbidelli was taken out of the race in the first lap. "It was a different kind of race for Fabio and I think it was a good experience for him - to go from tenth to seventh in very difficult conditions will be good in the future. He’s on track for his target of rookie of the year as well. We’re sad for Franco of course, but I hope he can come back stronger in the Austrian GP," he added. In the Moto2 race, Petronas Yamaha SRT's subsitute rider, Jonas Folger finished in 19th position out of 25 riders by clocking a time of 39 minutes 22.747 seconds. The 26-year-old German replaced Malaysian rider, Khairul Idham Pawi who is down with an injury. In the Moto3 race, two Petronas Yamaha SRT riders -- Ayumu Sasaki of Japan and John Mcphee of Scotland, suffered mixed fortunes in the race. Sasaki who started in the 24th position on the grid, finished in 11th place out of 19 riders after posting a time of 39 minutes 15.742 seconds, while Mcphee was forced to retire early after being involved in an accident with another rider. -- BERNAMA