Fabio Quartararo is cautious about building expectations after his MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix podium return as Yamaha has “skipped steps” in its rebuilding process.

The 2021 world champion stunned on Saturday when he snatched pole position with a new all-time lap record to end a 1134-day wait to top qualifying.

While he crashed on lap two of the sprint having just lost the lead, Fabio Quartararo was able to head the field for the first 10 of 25 tours in Sunday’s grand prix.

Unable to hold off eventual race winner Alex Marquez, Quartararo kept Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia at bay to finish second and claim a first podium for himself and Yamaha since Indonesia 2023.

While Jerez marked a major improvement for the rebuilding Yamaha project, Quartararo remains wary of viewing the result as the genuine potential of the bike right now.

“In the past, when I used to win races, I loved to be at the front and lead the race,” he said.

“And this is what we have done today. But the pace was not good enough to keep the first position and be fighting with Alex.

“But I think, like I always say, we have to be step by step, and already I think we have skipped some during this weekend because we have not achieved one top five.

“We have gone straight from a great result, but straight to the podium in second position.

“So, we have to stay calm for the next races, that if the results don’t come yet we have to be ready to be a little bit on the back.”

Prior to the Spanish GP, Quartararo’s best grand prix result in 2025 was seventh, though Pramac’s Jack Miller was fifth in a chaotic Americas GP.

Quartararo says the bike he raced at Jerez hasn’t changed since the Americas GP, having called on Yamaha to stop constantly changing settings in order to allow him to find a good base on the M1.

“Well, like I said, it’s the same bike as Austin,” he said.

“We just stopped making many set-up [changes] during a weekend, trying to not change everything, but just trying to keep the same bike and myself trying to put the bike on the limit.

“Right now we don’t have anything that will make us do a step forward.

“Tomorrow hopefully we will have [in the test], but this weekend is the kind of weekend that you arrive from the Friday and from the second lap we were on 1m37.6s I think.

“So, we were directly feeling good and we brought all the good moments to today.

“So, this is why I said we have zero expectations for the next races because it’s the same bike. But let’s see if we can bring these good moments to the next races.”