Buriram was one of Fabio Quartararo’s most anticipated tracks and Friday’s free practice did not disappoint expectations. The Yamaha rider managed to get through to direct Q2, starting the weekend off on the right foot. In fact, precisely on the occasion of the Thai Grand Prix, Michelin brought a stiffer carcass that had already been used in Austria and India this year and which had received the full approval of the Frenchman.
In these conditions, El Diablo he managed to fully exploit the potential of his M1, ending the first day of the Thai GP with a smile. He therefore achieved the objective of directly entering tomorrow’s decisive qualifying phase: “It was the main objective and we did it in a good way. So I’m happy, the pace was good, as soon as we have a carcass that is a little different than usual we can have a little more fun. For us it’s the same thing, but the others aren’t able to use all the power, so it’s fine for us.”
A decidedly relieved Quartararo appears before the press at the end of the two free practice sessions, which see him eighth, less than three tenths behind the leader Jorge Martin: “It’s as if I had changed the bike completely, if I had changed the style … I looked at the ride I did here in 2019, compared to last year and this year, there’s already a four-year difference: it’s nothing like that! The bike turned much more; I brake much harder now. In any case, the biggest difference is that I stayed with the same brand, but the bike has changed completely, but not exactly for the better: it’s different.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
“Hoping well for the future? I don’t know,” Quartararo continues. “We always have to wait until we have slightly special tires to show our potential like today. It’s just that others aren’t able to do what they normally do with these tyres, whereas for us, regardless of the tyre, it’s the same thing. I think we need to understand why we can’t use more power with this classic tire.”
The rider from Nice is also satisfied with the tire wear: “My drop was good, so I’m happy. This morning the drop was big with the medium, but in the afternoon with the soft it was good. For us this is positive. If I were to do the race now, I would start on the soft. But we need to understand something more, analyze the data well. But at the moment, we’ll see about the Sprint with the soft tire and the long race.”
All this translates into objectives for the weekend, however we will need to keep an eye on the weather, which promises to be unstable: “It depends on the weather, but I think that if we have a good qualifying we can be able to fight for the top 5 or also for the podium, why not”.
Friday’s free practice is also a day of testing and Yamaha asked Quartararo to try the new exhaust brought a few races ago again, but he rejected it: “We have already tested the new exhaust three or four times, but the Japanese engineers wanted to try it again. I don’t know why, but we did it. However, we have not found any profit with this innovation.”
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