Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo has acknowledged it's "so s**t" to have lost a nailed-on British Grand Prix win at Silverstone - even if it was a win he never expected.
Quartararo wasn't particularly optimistic going into Sunday after his Yamaha M1 went backwards in the sprint (as more or less did every other M1) - but the grand prix looked to have come together in the perfect way for him.
With likely win contenders Alex Marquez and Marc Marquez seemingly in strife after their initial crashes before the red flag forced a new race start, Quartararo pounced by re-overtaking Pecco Bagnaia for the lead after losing first place at the start, then breaking away in the early laps.
He was managing a four/five-second lead over Marco Bezzecchi in the closing stages, seemingly very comfortable to make the finish with good pace despite his choice of the soft rear tyre, when his bike suffered a ride height failure.
Speaking to the media after his exit, Quartararo teared up midway through answering the question of whether the race pace he had shown at least gave him hope for some of the upcoming rounds.
"Sorry," he said after gathering himself.
"Of course it gives me hope - but... f**k, it's so s**t what happened today.
"But it gives me hope because yeah, we improved the bike, and when everything is going on a good way we know we are fast.
"I knew to go fast today I had to brake like hell, and this is what I did from the first lap, braking super late, not using so much the rear tyre, and managing in a really good way.
"Bezzecchi I think one lap took [out of the lead] four tenths or three tenths, and next lap I just responded and could ride really well.
"But yeah, we had an issue with the device that remained blocked on the rear and yeah, a big shame because I never felt that good since a long time and everything was under control."
Why was he so strong?
Yamaha's form this season has picked up markedly as it introduced an upgraded engine and a new chassis - its step forward proven by Quartararo's run of three successive pole positions, something that was totally unthinkable given its generally atrocious single-lap pace in 2024.
Still, Quartararo did not expect to have the tools to fight for victory on Sunday, but the circumstances proved just right - until they didn't.
The soft front was the less fancied choice compared to the medium, but held up reasonably for himself and Yamaha stablemate Jack Miller, as well as eventual winner Marco Bezzecchi and eventual second-place finisher Johann Zarco.
"I pushed hard on the front but quite easily on the rear," said Quartararo of those crucial early laps, "because it was really-really windy and I understood really well where I had to push and where I had to brake a little bit earlier.
"I never expected - I think on the second lap I had more than 2s of advantage, and I was controlling."
He believed he was taking an advantage from being able to cope with the wind better, and the Yamaha also seemed to be taking better care of the front tyre than many of its rivals already on the Saturday.
And while rear grip had been its bugbear, this seemed to resolve itself in the right way in Sunday's cold conditions. Instead of struggling with the fragile soft like on Saturday, the Yamahas clearly excelled at warming up the more durable medium rear, with Quartararo and Miller the obvious standouts in the early laps.
"I didn't expect the medium to work quite well. Also on the Friday straight away we were the fastest to warm up the rear tyre and here it's really really difficult.
"And also the strategy we made from the sighting lap and the warm-up lap was a good strategy."
"We are coming"
The broadcast captured the images of a despondent Quartararo being consoled and reassured by his long-time friend and assistant Tom Maubant.
"You know, he's my best friend and he's the one who knows me the best. [He was] just telling me that today I was clearly the fastest and that was a long time that [this hadn't been the case].
"It was a little bit our life in reverse. I made the first pole in Jerez [in 2019] and broke the shifter - now this happens.
"We are coming back. I don't know when will be the next time. There are tracks where we will struggle more, [but also] tracks where like here we go fast. We are on a good way."
