The solid performances we saw last weekend in Misano do not seem to have been a flash in the pan, because Fabio Quartararo also repeated the excellent results in Mandalika, where today he once again achieved direct Q2 with sixth place in practice afternoon.
The Yamaha rider can be satisfied with this first day of the Indonesian Grand Prix, where he showed clear signs of improvement with his M1: “I’m happy, I think we’ve made some steps forward. We are closer to the top than to the back-up positions and this is positive.”
“We are still at the top in terms of power, but we have gone back to make progress. Now I think we have good handling, even if we are still missing something. We have to find the power and maintain agility, this is the work that Yamaha has to do, but the priority is grip,” he explains El Diablowho despite the improvements still notices some aspects to improve on the Yamaha.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo credit: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Grip is precisely one of the concerns of the Iwata manufacturer and Quartararo: “Here the grip is quite good, to really see our position and understand if we have really made a step, we will have to go through Q2 also in Japan. I was behind Enea Bastianini for two laps and I think that at turns 4 and 14 you can really notice the difference in acceleration. We miss a lot, also in terms of power. They are much faster. But I don’t want to complain now, we’re in Q2 and in sixth position.”
Free practice represents an excellent opportunity to continue testing new things and try to take those steps forward that can bring Yamaha back to fighting for the top: “This morning I tested many chassis. On the first bike I had the Misano 1 chassis, which we kept. At Misano 2 we had one that I didn’t like and I went back to the standard. This morning we tried a new one, but it didn’t work and between the two sessions we went back to standard. In Japan we will have another one. At the moment this is what we need to make progress.”
Finally, Quartararo comments on the new Michelin medium front tire (the one that the French company introduced this year calling it Hard+), which he does not consider ready to be used due to the many crashes seen: “I think that the medium front should be canceled from the Michelin allocation. The D is very dangerous, if you have noticed, you have seen many crashes with this tyre. It doesn’t warn you and is very difficult to bring to temperature. Usually, all Michelin tires are very good, but this one is not good.”
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