Fabio Quartararo: Yamaha has “zero grip, zero turning, zero power” at Assen MotoGP

Fabio Quartararo put Yamaha's V4 within one second of fastest man Marco Bezzecchi during Friday practice for the Dutch MotoGP at Assen.

The Frenchman was also just 0.385s away from a top-ten place and direct Qualifying 2 access.

However, it was only good enough for 15th, leaving Quartararo visibly frustrated on track before delivering another downbeat assessment.

“As you can imagine, difficult,” Quartararo said of his day.

“Right now I think the goal is to fight for points and try to maximise what we have.”

Asked if Yamaha had made progress with the bike's turning in fast corners, Quartararo said it is lacking in every area except straight braking.

“No, we are not going to make progress there,” he said.

“I mean, we need to make progress everywhere because we have zero grip, zero turning, zero power.

“But I'm trying to maximise especially the straight braking, that is the only point where I can still brake hard, but I'm not able to turn and open the throttle.

“So, like I said, trying to score points on Sunday will be the goal.”

Quartararo added that the turning problems are compounded by the bike's weight.

“We are overweight quite a lot with the bike compared to last year.

“Well, last year also was heavier than the others, but especially this bike is really, really heavy.

“Physically, okay, it's tough like last year, but of course when you have that much overweight, it's more heavy, it's more difficult.”

Test rider Augusto Fernandez appeared on track with a new front wing, which he said will be homologated by the race riders if this weekend's data proves positive.

“I've tested it,” Quartararo said of the 'wave' style wing, which appears to combine his tri-plane design with the box-shaped standard 2026 specification.

“It's a really, really small difference.”

Team-mate Alex Rins was the next-best Yamaha rider in 17th, 1.249s behind Bezzecchi's pace-setting Aprilia.