Fabio Quartararo explains unforeseen Yamaha issue which threatens MotoGP pole run
Yamaha rider was only 18th on Friday at Aragon
Fabio Quartararo joked he almost “made pole position from the other side” as he struggled to 18th on his Yamaha in Friday practice at the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix.
The 2021 world champion comes to Aragon off the back of three successive pole positions on an ever-improving Yamaha package.
But Friday at Aragon proved to be a struggle for Fabio Quartararo, who was only 18th at the end of the hour-long afternoon session and unable to get a direct Q2 qualifying spot.
He was visibly struggling with rear grip, which meant all of his late time attack efforts had to be aborted, with Quartararo explaining that this issue came on soft rubber and made the M1’s electronics “crazy”.
“We almost made the pole position from the other side,” he joked on Friday to MotoGP media at Aragon.
“No, it was a really tough day, especially with the soft tyre that we don’t understand what really happened with electronics and stuff.
“But not the best day and especially we don’t understand why and this is something that is more difficult.
“The bike is just [moving] for no reason and the problem is that you never know when to expect it.
“In our case, it’s not the best when you are on the bike at full lean angle and you never know if you’re going to lose it on the edge or on the exit.
“And I didn’t make any laps. So, the four laps I did were all cutting or making mistakes. But we will have to find a solution.
“The set-up is good. We just have to understand why when we change rubber our bike becomes completely different and our electronics are crazy.
“The set-up of the bike is great. It’s since Qatar that we’ve just touched a few things, but the electronics must change.
“It was not the easiest day but the engineers need to understand why I have this like completely losing.”
Quartararo added that the grip from the Aragon surface didn’t contribute to his traction issues, but struggled so much on the soft that he wanted to do his time attacks on the medium rear.
“I wanted to make the last time attack with the medium tyre, but we didn’t have it because clearly it was really, really tough to ride the bike,” he explained.
“And when you don’t know what to expect it’s the worse.
“This is why I wanted to go with the medium. But I think in the sprint if we still have the same problem I think I will use the medium.”
He concluded: “Of course you exit bad, you want to brake later, but you go wide, you make mistakes.
“But always happens every lap and I was keeping trying but at the last moment I didn’t want to fly just to go to Q2. So I just wanted to try to keep calm, but it was just like that.”
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
