Barcelona has always been a favorable track for Yamaha over the years, although the low-grip nature of the circuit has played against the M1 lately, due to its traction problems.
Despite this, at one point in the afternoon session on Friday it looked as if both Yamaha riders might secure direct access to Q2 for Saturday’s qualifying.
However, in the end, only Alex Rins managed to enter the top 10, finishing ninth. Quartararo will instead face Q1 after running out of time for a real time attack at the end of the session, “a mess” which he blamed on a too long chain change by Yamaha.
“El Diablo”, who was also the victim of a fall at the start of the second round, commented on his feelings on the Yamaha in Barcelona on Friday. “The aerodynamics are doing what we expected. It’s a shame that the time attack was a disaster.”
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“It took us a long time to change one thing on the bike and I could only do one lap in the second run, what’s more there were yellow flags, so I couldn’t do the lap.”
“But if you check the pace, the pace was quite good. But losing Q2 because of this is not great, but I think overall the base was much better than before.”
Then he went into more detail about what slowed down his last pit stop: “It was the chain. The length of the chain, because we tried a longer swingarm. The problem is that we stopped too late, because if the bike was good, it was perfect.”
“Usually we stop, change the tire and start again. But it wasn’t perfect. So we had to change the chain and we lost 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it was the worst 10 minutes of the weekend.”
The 2021 world champion also noted that Barcelona is one of the tracks where he can’t make much money this year with a new soft tire in time attack trim and he has no idea why.
“There are some tracks where I struggle a lot and we have no idea why,” he said. I do 1’39″6 on the pace. Why can’t I do better than 1’39″3 in the time attack? It’s something I don’t understand because we were very fast in terms of pace.”
“But I think our pace was really good, but when we put the new tires on we can’t understand, why Alex (Rins) on the other hand can make a big difference. But we can’t. So, this is something I try to understand and which the team also wants to try to understand.”
The new aerodynamics are worth 0″2, but you can’t see it in Barcelona
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
An important change in bike setup allowed Rins to take a step forward on Friday in Barcelona.
Yamaha also debuted the new aerodynamic package for both riders, first tested at Jerez following the Spanish GP and then refined in a private test at Mugello last week.
Quartararo noticed that the new aerodynamics brought an improvement in braking, while Rins noticed a slight benefit in cornering.
However, the poor grip of the Barcelona asphalt means that the benefits of the new aerodynamic package are reduced – according to Rins – and its potential in the Mugello test was at least 0.2 seconds per lap.
“On this track I don’t think it helps much, because with the lack of grip the problem is more on the rear than on the front or on the cornering speed,” explained Rins. “It certainly helps, with this fairing I felt I could do a little more speed in the corners, the bike held the line.”
“But we had more problems with the rear. At Mugello it was much better, maybe 0.2” faster.
So, ultimately as a driver you want more than 0″2, but 0″2 a lap is second in a race.”
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