Yamaha in the rear at Jerez: Fabio Quartararo deeply disappointed, once again points his finger at the YZR-M1.
The Yamahas of Quartararo and Morbidelli struggle in the first day of free practice at Jerez. Both will have to go through Q1, the undertaking will not be easy.
Quartararo and Morbidelli out of the top-15
Another disastrous day for Yamaha, Friday in Jerez ends with Fabio Quartararo And Franco Morbidelli respectively 16th and 17th, with a gap of more than seven tenths from the best time of Aleix Espargaro. A situation that is starting to become indigestible for the two riders, in particular for the French champion who has been bashing the top management at Iwata for some time to have a better bike. Until the winter tests, everything centered around a new engine with more horsepower, but power alone is not enough to get the better of MotoGP.
The high temperatures of the asphalt have certainly not played in favor of the YZR-M1 and tomorrow they will be forced to go through Q2, in the hope of carving out a place in the front rows of the starting grid. In the Friday debriefing Fabio Quartararo is more than embittered: and finding a solution will not be easy at all. “Hard to tell what went wrong. Indeed everything. The feeling with the bike going into the corners, I don’t even know if I’ll stay seated. I was on edge all the time“. A good time attack was missing in the morning, in the afternoon the mercury rose preventing many drivers from improving. A Friday to forget…
The endless problems of the Yamaha M1
The 2021 world champion tries to analyze his problems, but finding solutions is the job of the technicians. He’s been feeling like he’s been groping on empty for too long. “The problem is, I don’t know why we’re so slow. The bike is very aggressive and we are unable to rejoin. With new tires I was slower than many of my rivals“. Last season Quartararo managed to snatch a second place, an unattainable goal this year: “An impossible result“.
It didn’t go any better for boxmate Franco Morbidelli who has a lot to play for, given that his contract expires at the end of the year. The Nice driver returns to point the finger at the evolution of one Yamaha M1 unable to bring progress for several years. If until a few years ago it had cornering as its strong point, which managed to counterbalance the lack of top speed, now it finds itself in the background even from that point of view. “The speed when entering and cornering was better four years ago, there was more stability. We have lost it“.
