Quartararo had lined up second on the grid after only narrowly missing out on pole to Marc Marquez, but had a poor getaway, losing seven places on the opening lap.

The Frenchman spent the remainder of the race fighting in the lower half of the top 10, ultimately finishing 10th as he was passed by Pol Espargaro on the last lap, and took the chequered flag 18 seconds behind winner Danilo Petrucci.

Quartararo said he expected a "much better" showing, but his tyres were overheating throughout the entire race, the Frenchman ruing a lack of preparation for running in a pack in practice.

"I made not bad first metres, but I made a wheelie, a lost a bit the balance," Quartararo explained. "They just came [past] from everywhere and I was a little bit in the middle of nowhere.

"During the weekend we never rode behind people and the temperature and [tyre] pressure went really high from the beginning.

"On the last laps it was really difficult to manage the tyres. We expected much better from this race but we made P10, we bring six points at home.

"Was really difficult to ride the bike during this race and is the first time that happened to me, the front tyre going really high [in temperature and pressure].

"Some races it is like two laps, but now was the whole race, 23 laps on high pressure so I was losing the front in the change of direction, in the chicane was difficult to get the bike on the edge."

Quartararo says he plans to run behind other riders in future practice sessions, taking Marquez's setting his pole time at Mugello while running behind Andrea Dovizioso as an example.

"I prefer to ride alone but I should ride with people during the weekend," he conceded.

"We see many riders like Marc [in qualifying] was behind Dovi, he knows how to ride behind people and I think is good to know for the temperature and pressure of the tyres."

Vinales also struggles to pass

Quartararo's factory counterpart Maverick Vinales also dropped down the order after a bad start, and while he recovered to sixth in the late stages, he too struggled to pass others.

"When I am behind other riders we miss, so difficult to overtake because they have more grip, they accelerate better, I can recover only in the fast corner," Vinales said.

"In the slow corners, we suffer a lot. It took me many laps to overtake Pol [Espargaro].

"Pol was struggling a little bit but even if I was maybe two or three tenths faster I could not overtake, it took me many laps.

"I feel our set-up is the best we have right now so this is the best performance we could do today."

Additional reporting by Jamie Klein and Oriol Puigdemont