'Worse than I expected' - Fabio Quartararo "slow" in crash-affected MotoGP practice
Fabio Quartararo is heading to Qualifying 1 at the Italian MotoGP after a red-flag crash during a frustrating opening day.
Fabio Quartararo brought out the red flags midway through Friday afternoon practice at the Italian MotoGP.
The Monster Yamaha rider lowsided at Turn 4, with his M1 then coming to a halt on the track.
The session didn’t get any easier for the Frenchman after the restart, Quartararo suffering a further scare at the same corner on his way to just 17th place.
“The feeling with the bike from this morning was not great,” Quartararo said. “I was trying to push a bit the front and crashed. Also in the last two laps I tried too much, but I was still very slow.
“The problem is I'm very slow and I'm completely on the limit, so it’s difficult to understand.”
He added: “I'm trying to push a bit more, but just lose it. We need to understand why, because the last two races I was feeling really good with the front, and this one I'm super bad.”
Meanwhile, team-mate Alex Rins, using the 2026 front wing, was able to claim direct Qualifying 2 access in ninth.
“For sure, Alex is doing something great,” Quartararo said. “But right now, how I feel on the bike, I cannot go much faster.”
The 2021 Mugello winner concluded by admitting that a weekend he feared would be difficult, given the V4’s lack of top speed on MotoGP’s fastest straight, had begun “worse than I expected.”
Quartararo set a top speed of 346.1km/h this afternoon, compared with a 358.8km/h by KTM's Enea Bastianini and Aprilia riders Ai Ogura and Jorge Martin.
Pramac Yamaha riders Jack Miller (16th) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (20th) will also take part in Qualifying 1.
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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.
