Fuel was almost running out – Fernandez had the same problem as Quartararo

Whilst Aprilia star Marco Bezzecchi showed incredible pace throughout the MotoGP weekend at Misano and, until his retirement from the Grand Prix, set the pace in every session alongside Marc Márquez (Ducati), Raúl Fernández was unable to compete at the very front. In qualifying, the Trackhouse rider could only manage tenth on the grid. In the Sprint race, he crossed the finish line in seventh place behind Pedro Acosta (KTM).

In the Grand Prix, Fernández was unable to improve his pace. In the end, he finished sixth, 18.252 seconds behind winner Marc Márquez. That was the best he could manage; he had to contend with several issues with his RS-GP during the 27-lap race.

“The race was mentally challenging for me. On Saturday, after the sprint, we knew the front tyre would be a concern for us on Sunday. But then my rear tyre also overheated, and I had to make sure the fuel would last until the end of the race,” the Spaniard explained. “From the second or third lap onwards, I started managing that. It was very difficult because we hadn’t expected the fuel to run so low. By the middle of the race, I didn’t know where I could save fuel. That’s why it was mentally tough for me. I had to survive and keep an eye on the tyres and fuel consumption.”

Willkommen zum Rennen in San Marino

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Marc Márquez

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Pedro Acosta

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Fans

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Fabio Di Giannantonio

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Start des Rennens

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Alex Márquez und Jorge Martin

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Fabio Quartararo

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Luca Marini

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Fermin Aldeguer

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Enea Bastianini

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Jorge Martin

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Marc Márquez

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Pedro Acosta und Alex Márquez

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Fabio Di Gannantonio

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Raul Fernandez

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Marc Márquez gewinnt das Rennen

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Sieger Marc Márquez

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Alex Márquez, Marc Márquez, Pedro Acosta

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Sieger Marc Márquez

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Willkommen zum Rennen in San Marino

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Fernandez: “The cause lay in qualifying”

After the race, Fernandez analysed why he had ended up in this situation in the first place. “I think the cause lay in qualifying. Because when you have to work your way up the field in the race and push so hard – in the first three or four laps I used up a lot of fuel and put a lot of strain on the front and rear tyres on the right-hand side to overtake. That was the key to my race. Anyway, in races like this, you have to get the most out of the bike. I’m quite happy with the result, but not with my pace or how I had to manage the race. It’s part of the process. In four days’ time I’ll be back on the bike and we’ll start from scratch.”

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Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo also struggled to make the 27-lap race distance with his M1 on the fuel he had. A general problem at Misano? “I don’t know, we hadn’t expected that. ‘When I was on the starting grid, I made a point of saving the front tyre on the right-hand side,’ mused Fernandez. Did he have a warning on the dashboard about the fuel? ‘Yes, we get that displayed on the bike. We have three different mappings available – from the third lap onwards, I was running the mapping with the lowest fuel consumption. But that wasn’t enough. I was at the limit. It’s the little things that make the difference in MotoGP. We have to accept that, but the result wasn’t a complete disaster. A top-six finish is good, but I’m not happy that I had problems I hadn’t expected. And I wasn’t happy with my pace – around the middle of the race I had a few laps where I was doing 1:31.5 or 1:31.6. Straight after that, I was back in the 1:32 range.”