Yamaha: "Fabio is clearly strong this weekend"

Fabio Quartararo recovered from a late crash to secure a direct place in Q2 with fifth place in Friday practice for the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez.

Quartararo, who began the weekend a strong third in FP1, pushed to the front of the timesheets midway through the afternoon session.

However, a crash at the final corner, while three-tenths under his best time, upset his momentum.

By the time Quartararo returned to the track, he had dropped to tenth. 

A cancelled lap due to yellow flags threatened to send him to Qualifying 1, but the Frenchman dug deep to post a 1m 36.419s with two minutes remaining, easily good enough for a crucial Q2 place.

"It was an eventful day," Monster Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli said. "Fabio is clearly strong this weekend, and it especially showed during the Practice session, which he led for a long time."

"The pace was good,” Quartararo confirmed. “Unfortunately, I had the crash during my first real time attack, but it was still a positive day. I have confidence, especially on the front – the feeling is incredible. But when you push too much, you find the limit, like in the last corner.”

As in Qatar, the 2021 world champion looks capable of being a front row contender in qualifying and in contention for leading non-Ducati in the Sprint, but he remains cautious about Sunday’s race.

"Today we were fast, but we need to understand why we sometimes lose so much grip on a Sunday [after the Moto2 race],” he said.

On the other side of the garage, Alex Rins had ended FP1 inside the top ten but struggled to find clean laps during Practice as yellow flags disrupted his runs. 

The Spaniard ended the day in 15th overall, meaning he will need to progress through Q1.

"It was a tough day today," Rins said. "I decided to ride behind Fabio during my first time attack, but I went wide straight away. In the fast corners we are similar, but there’s room for improvement under hard braking."