Fabio Quartararo brands MotoGP riders “stupid” for ignoring Motegi’s “best tyre”

MotoGP riders have been branded “stupid” by Fabio Quartararo after ignoring what turned out to be the best tyre at Motegi.

Almost all riders used the soft-compound rear tyre in the Sprint on Saturday but that was withdrawn from the allocation ahead of Sunday’s grand prix after some riders suffered chunking in the centre part of the tyre due to overheating which resulted in blistering.

That left the medium-compound rear tyre and the hard. The latter had been dismissed by riders before the weekend, and even yesterday, but Michelin said it would be “risky” to use the medium after the Sprint.

In the end, the hard proved the best choice, with all riders opting for it in the race after trying it in Warm Up.

“For me, to be honest, I think we're a bit stupid to not consider this tyre,” said Fabio Quartararo after the Japanese MotoGP.

“I think for the time attack, especially for us, would have been even better the hard [compound rear tyre] than the soft because out of few corners the bike was pumping yesterday in the time attack and with this casing the bike was pumping much less and I think we could use a bit more power. 

“But it was funny because nobody used it and at the end was the best tyre, so a bit crazy.”

Fuel problems return

Quartararo’s Misano race a few weeks ago had been affected by unexpected fuel issues. Motegi is more notorious for its high fuel consumption than Misano, but even still Quartararo’s fuel limitation in Japan was quite extreme.

“From lap seven I had a fuel issue,” the Monster Energy Yamaha rider said.

“I could go much faster, but unfortunately I had to take care a lot about the throttle. From turn two to turn three I was 70 per cent of throttle, 70 per cent in the back straight, 70 per cent in the main straight. 

“I could go faster but unfortunately we had that. I'm happy with my riding and I think it's the most important.”

He added: “I don't know if the team expects to have less consumption on the fuel but at least I didn't expect to have this issue especially in the beginning when I was in the slipstream with Binder, I was not so far and it's really early. 

“So, even with the slipstream I had to close [the throttle] so then I lose, and without the slipstream was even worse. It's part of the race unfortunately.”