Fabio Quartararo’s Mechanical Failure Was The Most Heartbreaking Thing I’ve Ever Seen On Two Wheels

2025 has been the year of Amber Getting Into MotoGP, which has largely meant rooting for Marc Marquez at every opportunity. It’s fun to have a Max Verstappen-style dominant racer who’s a face rather than a heel. Since childhood, though, I’ve always had a soft spot for Yamaha bikes — a soft spot that was overjoyed to see Fabio Quartararo leading last Sunday’s race at Silverstone, that blue-and-Monster-logo inline-four R1M screaming along four and a half seconds ahead of the competition. And then, it all came crashing down. 

Through no fault of his own, Quartararo did not finish Sunday’s race. His R1M’s rear ride-height device locked on, dropping the rear suspension and ruining the bike’s meticulously engineered weight distribution and handling. Try as he might, Quartararo couldn’t force the system to disengage. He just rode off the track, parked the bike, and collapsed to the ground in a heap of dashed hopes.

At least in Le Mans, the prior race on the calendar, Quartararo crashed out after taking pole. It was a disappointment, a tragic end to his weekend, but one that came from rider error — he just ran out of tire and lowsided in a corner. To be forced out of a race for a mechanical failure, a bike issue over which Quartararo had no control, is even more gutting. There’s nothing to improve on there, no technique to further refine. 

Quartararo did everything right, and earned no points for Sunday’s race at Silverstone. He was seconds ahead of the competition, he kept the European brands off the top spot on the podium, and then in an instant it all fell apart — and it wasn’t his fault. That’s a truly gutting way to end a race weekend, and it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch. I can’t imagine how bad it was to ride.