Fabio Quartararo has offered his view of Pecco Bagnaia’s difficult run, saying he would be furious if his team-mate were consistently beating him. The comment came as the two-time MotoGP world champion headed to the Austrian Grand Prix after three straight Sunday DNFs, while still dealing with rear-grip problems on his Ducati.

Bagnaia’s situation is made more uncomfortable by Marc Marquez’s form. Marquez had taken his fifth win of the season despite not being fully fit and was leading the championship. At Misano, DAZN cameras recorded Bagnaia saying Ducati would not allow him to try a more standard bike set-up. Bagnaia subsequently criticised the broadcaster, arguing that the remark had been shown without its proper context.

Quartararo does not regard Bagnaia’s circumstances as a direct match for his own problems at Yamaha. His distinction was that Bagnaia’s team-mate is winning. He added that he would also be in a difficult position if Alex Rins, Jack Miller or Toprak Razgatlioglu were the rider winning, while stressing that he does not know how the relationship between Bagnaia and Ducati works.

The Yamaha rider also said he had not watched the DAZN conversation. He explained that when he has personal sporting concerns, he takes them to his crew chief or Yamaha personnel rather than raising them with other riders. At home, he generally tries to avoid anything connected with motorcycles.

Quartararo has recently faced similar attention after telling French media that he would no longer help Yamaha develop its bike because he was not being allowed to test Pirelli tyres on the Monday in Austria. He later acknowledged that he could have expressed those comments more thoughtfully.