Despite DNF at LeMans, Fabio Quartararo is satisfied with Yamaha’s development

Starting the race from 8th on the grid was a good start for Fabio Quartararo, even though after the starting lights went out he slipped to 10th position, but Quartararo was able to maintain a race pace that was not far behind the leading pack. Wearing a special LeMans livery with Monster Energy Yamaha, Quartararo revealed that the team had made major changes to its M1 setup during the warm-up session which was then retained for the Grand Prix. Currently in 6th position while trying to survive with Aprilia and Ducati riders, unfortunately Quartararo had to swallow the bitter pill of crashing in front of his fans at his home race. This is Quartararo’s best position so far in the Grand Prix, he is already 9 positions ahead of the racer on the next Japanese motorbike, namely Johann Zarco.

“Unfortunately, we fell, but this is the first time this year we have seen the leaders so close. So hopefully we can have more races like that. “I race at the limits of the motorbike, but I feel it’s better to fall in P6 than in P12,” said Quartararo, which we summarized from TNT sports. “So today is a good day. We were quite fast, so hopefully we can continue and feel that speed in the next races.”

“Honestly, I am happy because it is the first time I feel competitive this season and I can fight with many racers who used to be my rivals, such as Espargaro and Vinales. Unfortunately with 10 laps remaining I crashed, but I was able to be in this position and knew I was able to give my best. “In the morning we made changes to the motorbike and felt the improvement was quite good. I chose to use this setup for the race, and at the same time asked the team to use this setup as the basis for the motorbike setup in the next race,” said Quartararo.

In his explanation during the media debrief after the LeMans – France MotoGP, Quartararo revealed that there was a special agenda for the Monster Yamaha team, namely a private test session which would be held at the Mugello circuit, Italy for two days on 14 – 15 May. This test session was used in addition to testing the new parts presented by Yamaha, it also had an additional agenda, namely to see whether the base setup that Quartararo’s team found in the LeMans warm-up session could be used by Yamaha for future races.

“The day after tomorrow we will test the motorbike for two days at Mugello and there we will also have the opportunity to verify the setup we have, whether it can work well on a track with a different character [from the Bugatti circuit], however today we race with good and hope it can stay like this. What has increased? First of all, tire grip when entering a corner.

“I think we still have to review the motorbike electronics further, because we haven’t found the best electronic setup, looking at how my motorbike moves in turns 5 and 6 compared to other motorbikes, the M1 is heavier and doesn’t curve when cornering, but we are experiencing gradual improvements and is in the right direction of development.” he said yesterday.

Fabio Quartararo in last night’s Grand Prix race was able to record the ninth fastest time, or 0.579 seconds adrift of the fastest lap record set by Enea Bastianini on the Ducati GP24 saddle, but had to leave LeMans for Montmelo – Catalunya with 0 points. Meanwhile, Quartararo’s teammate – Alex Rins – managed to pass the checkered flag in 15th position and took home 1 point for Yamaha manufacturing and the Monster Yamaha Factory Team.