In the Land of the Rising Sun, Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha experienced a relapse of its issues. Fourteenth in qualifying, the rider from Nice never found the right feeling on dry conditions at Motegi.
Despite a good weekend last week, Fabio Quartararo continues to struggle with his Yamaha. Stuck once again in Q1, the races promised to be challenging. “We have no turning, no power, no support, nothing. If we really want to try to enter Q2, we have to try braking beyond the limit, and by braking beyond the limit, we make a lot of mistakes.”
Right from the start of the sprint race, the Frenchman was jostled by Raul Fernandez and lost three positions. The rider from the Alpes-Maritimes managed to recover among his weekend teammates to finish as the first Yamaha rider (15th).
“Nothing was missed, we are at the limit. Honestly, when you see the power we have, we have a lot of wheelie, there’s nothing we can do,” he explained on Canal+ at the finish line. “There’s no plan. It’s been three years that the bike has been the same. We’ve made changes, but we’ve never really progressed. I think we’ve tried everything possible on this bike and there’s no way to make big progress because there’s so much missing that we can’t focus on just one thing.”
A Missed Gamble for Fabio Quartararo
For the main race, rain stirred things up by arriving just before the start of the formation lap. After one lap of the race, the majority of the riders headed to the pits to switch to bikes equipped with rain tires. Except for five of them, including all three Yamaha riders. Fabio Quartararo found himself in 2nd place after a good start on a very wet track.
The conditions worsened at the Motegi circuit, forcing the rider from Nice to eventually head to the pit. He returned to the track in 18th position, far from the leaders. Even under the rain that would lead organizers to stop the race after 13 laps, Fabio Quartararo was unable to make a difference. He finished in 10th position. After the race, “El Diablo” seemed satisfied with his feeling on the wet track. “In some areas, we’re not too bad in the rain, I expected much worse. The problem is that it’s really good or really bad; there’s no balance for it to be good. In terms of cornering, it’s really difficult, but in terms of grip, when we have to lift the bike, it wasn’t bad today. I can’t maintain speed in the corners, so it’s a problem for us.”
There are four events left before the end of the championship, with the standings never having been so tight at the front. Next meeting is on October 20 in Australia.
