fabio quartararo had a good Friday in Japan, but he wasn’t entirely satisfied. The Frenchman, who had long been at the top of the timesheets, finally finished eighth after his rivals improved at the end of the session. A small mistake at Turn 9 further delayed his final attempt, but his time still secured him a direct place in Q2. The objective has therefore been achieved.
Despite a slippery track at Motegi, Quartararo did not experience any real difficulty during his first contact with the track. “The conditions weren’t too bad for me. This morning, we didn’t want to use the right tire, which is the medium. Everyone was riding on soft or hard. This afternoon, it was pretty decent; I’d say the track was normal.”, explained the Nice native to the media during his press briefing.
Certain of avoiding the dreaded test of the repechage on Saturday morning, he recognizes that the overall performance remains insufficient. “Happy to be in Q2, but I wouldn’t say [I’m] super happy with the Tests. But yeah, it’s better to be there on Friday, because we know how difficult it is to go from Q1 to Q2 on Saturday., he admits. The pace isn’t bad over six laps. The problem is that I’m still giving 100%, and the others, as we see with Bezzecchi, still have a bit of margin. So when the Sprint arrives, I’m already at my maximum. And the more laps I pile up, the worse it gets for us.”
Quartararo emphasizes the Sprint
Yamaha planned to use this weekend in Japan to introduce a new exhaust. But the test was cut short. After just a few kilometers, he returned to the pits to install the old one on his M1. I did less than one lap and we returned to the standard versiond », assures the 2021 world champion. The Nice native specifies that the part was supposed, on paper, to provide a little extra power, but that the Yamaha riders all had to abandon it. “Apparently, we’re having problems with the rear wheel. I didn’t even ask exactly what, because I didn’t really get to ride it »
The question remains: what can he expect at Motegi? Despite a good pace for a few laps, his Yamaha struggles too much on the long straights. “We can clearly see that the top four are Aprilia, Ducati, KTM and Honda. We’re clearly below. Our bike’s handling isn’t great, but we’re giving our all to be as high up as possible.”, regrets Quartararo.
As for his chances in the Sprint, the Frenchman is banking on aggression. “It’s going to be tough, but if we have a chance, it’s in the Sprint. We’ll have to be super aggressive, because on the straights we’re in trouble. We compared it with Bezzecchi’s lap at Misano: he’s only faster than me in the last sector, where there are only straights. Here, there are a lot of them, so we know it’s going to be difficult, but we’re going to give it our all in the Sprint.”, he promises.
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