Quartararo confident pace can bring Silverstone challenge but is braced for penalty

MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo believes he has the pace to win at Silverstone but accepts his long-lap penalty brings uncertainty.

The Frenchman will start on the second row for Sunday's race, finishing in P4 behind Jack Miller, Maverick Vinales and pole sitter Johann Zarco, clocking in at 0.171 seconds behind the leader.

Quartararo's strong pace means he is well in the fight for round 12 of the season, but having been issued a penalty for colliding with Aleix Espargaro last time out in the Netherlands, he knows it could cost him a win that would extend his championship lead.

"Johann has really strong pace, I think he is the fastest. But I think our pace is to fight for the victory," he told Autosport.

"Okay, long-lap penalty, we don't know which position we will finish, but at least our pace is top."

Quartararo added that he could not have offered anything more during qualifying, stating he was at the "maximum", but was pleased with his lap time.

"Well, it is what it is. I mean, I made one of the best laps of qualifying this year, I feel I have nothing more. We want to put more power in sometimes, but we are already on the maximum," he said.

"I feel happy about my pace also in FP4. Okay, with the crash of Aleix and [Takaaki] Nakagami I could not finish the lap because of the yellow flag, but I think all of our laps was on [1m] 59 and this is something really positive.

"The track is much better than last year and our consistency as well is much better."

Quartararo currently leads Espargaro by 21 points in the standings.