Fabio Quartararo slumps in Italian MotoGP Sprint: “The biggest issue we had was chatter”

Fabio Quartararo says “it’s going to be quite difficult” to finish Sunday’s Italian MotoGP if he can’t improve the chatter and degradation issues he ran into in Saturday’s Sprint.

Quartararo, who partially dislocated his left shoulder in Practice on Friday, qualified on the second row on Saturday morning, but despite starting well in the Sprint dropped from fourth to 10th by the end of the 11-lap race.

The primary problem for the Monster Energy Yamaha rider was not about his physical condition, though, rather about tyre performance and, specifically, chatter.

“Feeling a bit sore, of course, but basically the biggest issue we had is chatter, a lot of chatter,” Fabio Quartararo told MotoGP.com after the Mugello MotoGP Sprint.

“Actually, we don’t really know why.

“Grip, performance, we knew there was going to be a drop, but I didn’t expect that much.

“Hopefully we can improve tomorrow because if it starts from this lap then we cannot basically finish the race so it’s going to be quite difficult.”

Despite his slide down the order in the Sprint, Quartararo was still the best-placed Yamaha at the end of the race in 10th.

Next-best was Miguel Oliveira in 13th, while a gamble on the hard-compound front tyre didn’t work for Jack Miller who finished 16th. Alex Rins finished 18th after an incident with Miller on lap four dropped him from 10th to second-last.