QUARTARARO AND DI GIANNANTONIO PINPOINT APRILIA’S SILVERSTONE SPRINT EDGE ON REAR TYRE TEMPERATURE

Fabio Quartararo believes the biggest story behind Saturday’s Silverstone MotoGP Sprint was not simple tyre wear, but rear-tyre overheating—an issue that he says helped explain why several Ducati riders faded after strong early positions.

In the Sprint, Aprilia riders Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura led from the start to take the top two spots, with the race’s first-ever all-Aprilia podium completed by Marco Bezzecchi. Quartararo pointed to the way the rear tyre temperature likely affected the field, arguing that when riders overheat the tyre quickly, they lose the ability to stay in a strong, consistent rhythm.

He said the key difference was how Aprilia managed rear temperatures. “I think more than tyre degradation is [if] you overheat quite quickly the tyre,” Quartararo explained. “This is something that when you have more grip, you can play more with the throttle and bring the temperature a bit lower. And I think this is where Aprilia is stronger than anyone else. Because I think they can keep the lower temperature in the rear tyre and they can stay longer at a strong pace.”

That overheating theory was particularly relevant to the Ducati challenge. Fabio di Giannantonio felt he could take the fight to the race-leading Aprilias during the early stages, sitting third behind only Martin and Ogura. “My rhythm was really good at the beginning. My feeling was really good. I thought that I could have something more compared to the two guys in the front,” he said. “For this, I was trying to overtake Ai.”

But after the fourth lap, di Giannantonio began to lose the rear in corner entry and described the rest of the Sprint as “survival mode”. “But then after the fourth lap I started to lose the rear in the entry to the corners. So it was really difficult then to manage the situation, and I went into survival mode. A pity.” He added that he had expected a drop, but not “like this”, stressing that he was pushing hard early without feeling he was destroying the tyres. “Usually I'm one of the best riders to keep the tyres. So it got me, honestly.”

Di Giannantonio’s comments also carried a wider warning about Ducati’s current balance. After the race, he said he did “the maximum” he thought he could do, claiming he tried to save the rear for the end but ended up destroying the front. “I tried to save as much as I could the rear [tyre] for the end and I did a good job for the rear, but doing it I destroyed the front tyre,” he said. He described Ducati’s situation as having a “short blanket” and said the bike’s management window is too narrow: “If we push too much with the front, then we finish the front and our race is finished. If we, to make the front do the things that it should do, we use too much the rear then. So it's really difficult to manage it.”

He summed up the gap in blunt terms, saying Ducati is currently “just the second power”, with the Aprilias the first. “At the moment we are just the second power, let's say. The first ones are the rear, that are incredible,” he said, adding that while they knew the rear would be strong at Silverstone, Ducati had “taken a big gap” and must improve.

Like fellow Ducati riders Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia, di Giannantonio’s rear grip fell away after a promising start, and he ended up slipping to fifth at the chequered flag. Marquez, who was also in the top four early, finished ninth and only just held off rookie Diogo Moreira for the final point. Di Giannantonio said the result showed Ducati “need to improve”, adding: “I continue to say this from the beginning of the year. I continue to say that Aprilias are doing a better job than us. So we must improve.”

He suggested Aprilia’s advantage may come down to corner entry, which allows riders to be “more relaxed on the throttle” and manage the tyres better. “From our side, we have a really great package,” di Giannantonio said. “Our bike is quite complete, but they have this little better entry of the corners that allows them to be more relaxed on the throttle and then manage better the tyres. So it's what we have to improve.”

Quartararo, meanwhile, finished 14th on the V4-powered Yamaha M1. He admitted that his own rear tyre situation was not ideal, especially given how hard he pushed throughout the Sprint. “The tyre consumption was a bit high also for us, because I pushed all the race, to be honest,” he said. “I had Moreira and Marini overtake me on the straight, but the tyre degradation was quite a lot and I think the medium rear will be better tomorrow.”

Asked whether he had considered matching Pramac’s Jack Miller by starting on the medium rear, Quartararo said he did not. In his view, the softer tyre choice was the only realistic route to points. “No, because, to be honest, finishing in the points today was something almost impossible,” he replied. “So, I wanted to bet with the soft. I know Jack was starting with the medium, but, I mean, if you start already with a tyre harder than the others and you know you have already less grip, for sure it's impossible to score a point. Today I gave my maximum, but it was not enough.”

Beyond the tyre discussion, Quartararo also reflected on his own feel on the bike. He said he is riding “tensely” and not flowing through the corners, a sensation he linked to Silverstone’s demands on front and rear confidence. “Looking back at how I was feeling last year and how I'm feeling this year, I ride like I'm really tense on the bike,” he said. “I'm not flowing with the bike and I'm not really feeling good, but it's a bit what I expect, to be honest.”

He added that the track punishes any lack of connection between front and rear in corner speed. “It's the kind of track where if you don't really feel the front and the rear together in the corner speed, that means that I'm super tense,” Quartararo said. “So, I don't want to change every time the setting of the bike, because we always change, but we always come back to the same place. Just tomorrow, I will put the medium rear and try to maximise the result.”

Di Giannantonio also looked ahead to Sunday’s race, hoping the medium rear tyre will change the picture. “I really hope. I want to believe that tomorrow will be a new day and we can fight for the win. But we'll only discover tomorrow, I guess!”

Quartararo further referenced how last year’s Silverstone grand prix ended for him despite leading, when he was denied victory by a ride-height device failure on the former inline-powered M1.