Adding to the Frenchman’s woes, his third non-score in four races came at a flowing Phillip Island circuit that on paper offerꦐed his best chance of beating Bagnaia compared to the upcoming Sepang and Valencia rounds.

Qualifying fifth, directly between ne﷽arest title rivals Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro, Quartararo briefly rose to third before finishing the opening lap in fifth.

Soon fighting a defensive battle, Quartararo’s challenge was then thrown ꦚoff course, literally, when the rear of his Yamaha kicked sideways under braking for the Turn 4 hairpi꧙n, on lap 4.

Unable to make the corner, Quartararo ⛎threaded between his rivals as he ran wide and dropped to 22nd place.

“I braked, the back of the bike lifted and I had Marini in front so I had toꦉ go wide,” Quartararo said. “That was my mistake and it was not easy to recover.”

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Regrouping, Quartararo was up to 15th by lap 11, aided b🐠y the Jack Miller-A♉lex Marquez incident ahead, when he then 🎐lost the front into Turn 2 and crashed out.

“I thin🎀k I overtook 4-5 riders, but I was also trying to save the tyres,” he said. “Then I pushed way too much in the entry [of turn 2], it was not a big difference in the corner speed but just out of [turn] one I was much faster than I used to be.”

With Bagnaia going on to finish third, ဣQuartararo thus lost a title l𒊎ead he has held since Portimao.

91 points ahead of Bagnaia afꦿter Sachsenring, Quartararo is ꧙now 14 behind heading into Sepang next weekend.

“Now we need to turn the page and we only have one jobไ and it's trying to win,” Quartararo said. “It’s going to be the toughest job of my career, but I'm ready to figh꧙t for it.”

A late loss of the title lead prompted some comparisons w✃ith 2020, when Quartar📖aro dropped from first to eighth in the world championship over the last four rounds.

Having then we𒈔athered a late Bagnaia charge to win the MotoGP crown last season, Quartararo feels the only issues he’s currently facing are technical.

“2020 was [because of] mentally and technically, and now I don't feel mentally 🦄like I’m over-thinking too much or not. So mentally I don't feel it’s about 2020,” he said.

“I’m just trying to d🧔o my best and I'm overriding a little bit too much and the r꧒isk of having a mistake is really close. So that's what happened today.”

The good news for Quartararo is that he would have been 23-points behind Bagnaia had Alex Rins and Marc Marquez not ov🌼ertaken the Italian on the last lap.

‘We need rear grip’ - Quartararo agrees with Dovizioso?

Before calling an early end to his final MotoGP season at Misano, RNF’s Andrea Dovizioso 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:clearly explained𓃲 t꧃hat a lack of rear grip, as well as the much-publicis🎃🍌ed power deficiency, was Yamaha’s biggest problem.

Quartararo 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:seemed to disagree at the time, pointing out that top speed was the main area wher⛦e he was🎃 losing out to rival machines.

That is already being worked on, with a promising first te🌳𓆏st of the prototype 2023 engine.

But in Australia𝓡 the young Frenchman confirmed that rear grip is𝓀 also badly needed to transform the M1 from being fast on its own, to fast in a race, especially at a tyre-hungry track like Phillip Island.

“Of course, we are missing the power, but ♒also rear grip,” Quartararo said. “So this is ಌgoing to be one thing we have to work on, to turn more tight with a little bit less corner speed in some kind of corners. That for me is the most important.

“We need more rear grip also because we need to save the ꦺtyres and try to have the best drive as possible."

‘A bike to fight for victories, not just fast in practice’

Quartararo added: “Of course I'm riding over the limit, but for me the problem is also that 🃏weℱ ride in a different way than the others.

“So when I am alone, you c🤡an see thatꩵ my pace is always super strong.

"Even in Austria, which is not th𓆏e best track for us, we had one of the best paces.

"B𝕴ut then when we are in a ra💛ce it’s always difficult.

“This is something that we need to realise, that we need a bike to fight for victories, not a bike just to go fast in pract💃ice.

“And then when you need to save the tyres [but] you miss grip and acceleration, like today, it’s not the best [situation]. Today I've made a mi👍stake by braking too hard and going wide in turn 4.

“So I think for the futu꧂re we need a bike that can switch to win races and think less about trying to𝕴 have the most corner speed possible.”

With team-mate Franco Morbidelli also crashing ꧋out, of 18th, the top Yamaha rider on Sunday was RNF’s Cal Crutchlow in 13th, crossing the line just ahead of rookie team-mate Darryn Binder.