Fabio Quartararo: Big drop, same 'strange' problem as Rossi

Fabio Quartararo's podium hopes disappear aftre a big drop in tyre grip on his Monster Yamaha debut at the Qatar MotoGP; 'When Maverick overtook me, he was just in another league. He had much more grip than us'.

Peter McLaren

29 Mar 2021

Fabio Quartararo MotoGP race, Qatar MotoGP, 28 March 2021
© Gold and Goose Photography

Valentino Rossi wasn't the only Yamaha rider struggling for rear tyre grip during Sunday's Qatar MotoGP.

The Italian's Factory team replacement Fabio Quartararo said that he also suffered similar issues to the #46.

"I struggled a little bit like Valentino. He had the same as me. So it’s quite a strange situation," Quartararo said.

The Frenchman had taken the fight to the fast-starting Ducatis during the early laps but later faded to an eventual fifth place, in a race won by team-mate Maverick Vinales.

"I was feeling so strong from the beginning and as soon as I overtake Jack, I could catch Johann so fast," Quartararo said. "But, I felt a big drop on the rear tyre that we didn’t expect because in the test and practice, I never had the drop in the rear tyre.

"When Maverick overtook me, he was just in another league. He had much more grip than us."

Quartararo insisted that he had been riding as smooth as possible to try and save the tyre.

"Honestly, even when I was overtaking Jack, my riding was smooth," he explained. "I was not burning the tyre like hell to overtake. I was feeling great, doing great corner speed, and just the tyre made a big drop. So this is why I don’t understand.

"Also when Maverick overtook me, I was struggling but I saw he was pushing quite a lot with the tire and everything. I said, 'okay, maybe he will have a drop a little bit later'. But we had every time more and more and more drop.

"Luckily I had a great front feeling and I could manage to make the lap time in a different way.

"Now I'm wondering to see [on the data] how Maverick made the first lap, if he was more smooth than us or something. I felt like I was riding so smooth in the beginning, and unfortunately I had that drop.

"But I feel happy because whereas last year the mistake that we do is when we feel not great is we make P14 or crash, now we go back to P5. So this is great points for the standings on a tough day like this.

"P5 and three seconds from Maverick. It’s not that bad.".

Quartararo will return to the Losail track on Friday, for the start of this weekend's Doha round.

Ducati's Jack Miller was another frontrunner to struggle with a big drop in tyre grip, fading to ninth.