Why Fabio Quartararo has become MotoGP’s qualifying king again

Fabio Quartararo has three pole positions for Yamaha inside the last four rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season, marking a clear step from the “disaster” qualifying used to be in recent years.

The 2021 world champion has 19 pole positions in the premier class since he made his debut in the 2019 campaign, during which he topped qualifying six times.

Maintaining his one-lap speed prowess through the next few years, the well dried up for Fabio Quartararo as Yamaha skidded down the order across the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

“The one lap pace was something that clearly last year was a disaster, but it’s started to be one point where we have improved,” Quartararo said of Yamaha’s time attack form last month at the British Grand Prix.

Yamaha’s technical development being spearheaded by former Ducati man Max Bartolini has begun to see the M1 climb its way back up the order in 2025, with Quartararo achieving a second-place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix.

He did so a day after topping qualifying for the first time since the 2022 Indonesian GP, having just two weeks prior in Qatar gotten back onto the front row in third.

He continued that form in front of his home fans at the French Grand Prix, where he bested Ducati’s Marc Marquez by just 0.118s to claim back-to-back poles in 2025.

Then at the British Grand Prix, Quartararo completed a hat-trick of poles, as he beat Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez at Silverstone by 0.309s.

So, what has changed for Quartararo on the Yamaha?

One key element to this turnaround has been stability in the set-up of the M1. While Yamaha has not rested in bringing developments to the package, since the Qatar GP it has strayed little from the base settings that Quartararo is comfortable on.

“Well, for me it’s clearly the consistency that since Qatar we didn’t change anything [on the set-up],” he explained.

“We kept the same base, some small modifications, better, worse. Since Qatar we changed the bike but only a few details, and this was the difference. And it has always been one of my strongest points to be on the limit for one lap. The confidence is there.”

Quartararo has always been something of a difference maker at Yamaha. That has been evident in all of his poles this year. At Silverstone, the next-best Yamaha was Pramac’s Jack Miller in sixth but 0.872s behind the Frenchman.

In France, Miller was again Quartararo’s closest challenger from the Yamaha stable, but was further away in eighth and 0.859s off the pace. In Spain, Quartararo was the only Yamaha rider inside Q2, with Miller the next-best down in 14th and just over a second shy of the pole time.

What’s important about the stability in the M1’s set-up for Quartararo is that it has allowed him to better optimise the alteration to his riding style he has been working on since late last season. This change is focused on throttle control, with Quartararo needing to be smoother to counter the fact that his Yamaha is being interfered with less by the electronics.

The less electronics are at play when accelerating, the more speed you can gain as traction control isn’t cutting in as much. But the trade-off is the need to be gentler with the throttle - something that wasn’t easy for Quartararo to get used to, but is paying off in a big way now.

“Especially to be much smoother with the throttle connection, which is something that I completely changed and was something that I needed a lot of time [to adjust],” he said when asked about how he has changed his riding style.

:I started working on that since I think Malaysia 2024. We started to change my riding style, it was not easy. But since the Sepang test it’s been better and better, and electronics-wise we are doing a better job than in the past.

“So, basically we had to make it in a much smoother way and basically have as less electronics as possible, and have the cleanest opening.

“The first steps were difficult because you felt like the bike had less traction and it was quite easy to highside. But, step by step we are getting it and even when we push super hard we are still keeping a smooth riding style. And this is something that is giving me more confidence.”