Premiere at Portimão: Fabio Quartararo wins the BMW M Award for the first time
The Petronas Yamaha SRT rider was the fastest qualifier in MotoGP™ throughout 2020 to win the coveted award for the first time
Tuesday, 24 November 2020
A premiere for the iconic BMW M Award: in the 2020 season, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) was the fastest qualifier in MotoGP™, which saw him added to the list of winners of the BMW M Award for the first time. His reward for his performances is the winner’s car for 2020: the new BMW M2 CS. The car was presented during the MotoGP™ season finale at the weekend as Portimão in Portugal hosted Grand Prix motorcycle racing for the first time.
Quartararo claimed pole position four times in 2020, more than any of his rivals, and picked up a total of 225 points for the BMW M Award classification, his lead over his closest rival being 13 points. Quartararo’s BMW M Award victory in the 2020 season ended the impressive record streak of Spain’s Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), who won the BMW M Award seven years in a row between 2013 and 2019. However, this year Marquez missed much of the season due to injury.
After the final qualifying session of the season on Saturday, winner Quartararo was presented with his new BMW M2 CS. In attendance at the award ceremony was Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports. Markus Flasch, CEO of BMW M GmbH, abstained from travelling to Portugal due to the current coronavirus situation, but followed the final from Munich.
Markus Flasch, CEO of BMW M GmbH: “First of all, I would like to thank Dorna for managing to organise an exciting MotoGP season with 15 Grands Prix against all odds in this difficult year globally. It wasn’t an easy task, but Dorna made it possible. It meant we were able to appear as title sponsor for the first time at the ‘BMW M Grand Prix of Styria’ at Spielberg as part of our involvement as the ‘Official Car of MotoGP’. We were also able to continue the BMW M Award tradition and present it for the 18th time this year. Congratulations to Fabio Quartararo, who more than deserves this prize with four pole positions and a total of nine front rows. We selected the BMW M2 CS for the winner’s car this year, our limited special edition, with which we bring many components from racing onto the road. We hope Fabio has a lot of fun with his new high-performance car!”
Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports: “Congratulations to Fabio Quartararo. He was really impressive in qualifying this season and impressed all of us with his speed. I would like to thank our long-standing, reliable partner BMW M GmbH, on whose support we have always been able to rely, even in this year that has not been an easy one. There was never any doubt that the BMW M Award for the fastest qualifier would be presented this season as well; despite it being a very different season to usual. This competition is highly valued by our riders and with the winner’s car, BMW M GmbH raised the bar once again. You can see that the BMW M2 CS was born on the racetrack and I am sure it will get Fabio’s motorsport heart racing.”
Fabio Quartararo, BMW M Award winner: “What a crazy, exciting season. I’m delighted to have won the race for the BMW M Award. It’s great that BMW M GmbH has been acknowledging our performances in qualifying with this special prize for so many years. Many thanks for this recognition. I’m already really looking forward to taking my new BMW M2 CS for a spin. It looks like a racing car for the road and is no doubt a lot of fun. Huge thanks to BMW M GmbH!”
