Fabio Quartararo: “Great pace” as Yamaha “exceeded expectations” in Australian MotoGP practice

Yamaha exceeded its own expectations during Friday practice for the Australian MotoGP, with factory riders Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins both securing direct Qualifying 2 access inside the top six.

Crucially, the pair also showed strong race pace, dipping into the 1m 27s on used soft rear tyres before the time attacks began.

“The way we've started the weekend has exceeded our expectations,” said Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli.

“We anticipated some challenges due to the typically lower grip levels at this circuit compared to Mandalika, but, so far, both riders are feeling confident and able to push.

“The team is highly motivated to carry this momentum into Saturday.”

Quartararo ended the day in fourth place, 0.4s from Marco Bezzecchi, but just 0.1s from the other Aprilia of Raul Fernandez and effectively level with VR46 Ducati’s Fabio di Giannantonio.

“We had some issues but I managed to get a great pace and a great lap on the time attack,” Quartararo said.

“We had issues with the [ride height] device to recover in Turn 1, so it was a bit of a problem to use it in the straight and we know it's really important. But overall the pace has been quite fast, although we have to improve a few tenths to be competitive.

“I was pretty fast but I saw Marco, who was super fast. Pecco, also Diggia. But let's see how things are tomorrow.”

Former Phillip Island winner Rins was just under a tenth slower than Quartararo in sixth, despite losing early track time to a clutch issue.

“I'm so happy because the day was quite good,” Rins said. “This morning, we were struggling a lot with some clutch problems. We lost a lot of time. And MotoGP right now is super tight, so as soon as you lose some laps, you have a lot of work to recover.

“But we started in a really good way this afternoon, and then set a good lap time. So I'm quite happy. The most important thing is that we are in Q2.

“The Yamaha is working not bad here, but as a rider with experience of other manufacturers here, right now the bike is shaking a lot. It's like a little bit aggressive.

“So it's quite demanding compared to other bikes that I rode here on the Island. Let's try to take the best of the Yamaha and try to improve the areas that we are missing.”

Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller, fastest in FP1 after fitting new tyres for a late time attack, dropped to 13th in the afternoon session, with team-mate Miguel Oliveira 16th.