Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP |News details:Quartararo Secures Top-5 Placement in Sepang Sprint

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A strong opening lap of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Fabio Quartararo to the 10-lap Grand Prix of Malaysia Sprint was key to him riding to P5. Álex Rins lost some ground in the early stages of the Sprint and went on to finish in 11th place.

Sepang (Malaysia), 2nd November 2024

After a one-minute silence to pay respect to the victims of the Valencia floods, raindrops started to fall on the grid of the Grand Prix of Malaysia Sprint. It added extra tension before the 10-lap dash, but Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins remained calm and collected. As the rain subsided quickly, they went on to ride to a P5 and P11 result respectively.

Starting from eighth on the grid, Quartararo won a position in the opening lap. He was on a mission. The number-20 rider also overtook Franco Morbidelli on the next lap to get up into sixth. On lap 3, Francesco Bagnaia crashed out, allowing El Diablo into the top 5. Meanwhile, the Yamaha man was chasing down Alex Marquez but ultimately couldn't catch up. Quartararo finished in fifth place, 7.917s from first.

Rins commenced the ten-lap dash from P9, but over the first two laps fell back to twelfth. What followed was a battle with Marco Bezzecchi ahead of him and the two swapped positions a few times. The number-42 rider eventually lost contact with Bezzecchi, Pedro Acosta, and Jack Miller, who were battling for eighth place and two championship points. With Bagnaia having crashed out, Rins held on to 11th position all the way to the chequered flag, which he took 14.901s from the winner.

Today's results see Quartararo hold 13th place in the overall standings with 98 points. Rins stays in 19th position with 23 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP keep their 9th place in the team championship with 121 points, and Yamaha hold on to 4th position in the constructor's championship with 109 points.

The team will be back in action tomorrow for Warm Up, held from 10:40-10:50 GMT +8, and the 20-lap Race, which starts at 15:00.

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director

Taking two places on the third row in qualifying was realistically the best result we could do, and it proved very valuable, especially for Fabio. He did a great job to stay with the front-runners in the opening stages, which put him in a good position to fight for points today. This top-5 result is a nice boost for morale and a small reward: the fruit of our labour. Álex has been making great progress this weekend. His one-lap speed is strong, and this helped him get a good qualifying result. He's still working on getting as comfortable and competitive with his race-pace, but compared to a week ago, he is in a much better place, which is promising.

Fabio Quartararo

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

It was nice! I think that we made a step with the electronics this weekend, and that pays off, especially concerning the race pace. Hopefully, we can do the same thing tomorrow. We had an issue with the front, so it wasn't super comfortable at the end. Let's see what we can achieve tomorrow. I think that the momentum we're building is great. We're in P5, and there was only one crash in front of us. We didn't get this P5 handed to us because of five crashes, for example, so this is a positive point. We have made some steps. There's still a margin for improvement, but I think we can be happy with what we have done so far.

Álex Rins

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

It was a really positive day. In the morning, we worked on electronics, and it gave us a good feeling. I felt the bike a bit better, and it suits me, and that was quite nice. We did a really good qualifying after that. In the Sprint race, there was a bit of chaos in the first corner. I fell back to 11th place, and I held that position for most of the Sprint. I couldn't overtake as I wanted, but we did take good information. Tomorrow is going to be a very long and demanding race, also for the tyres. Let's see how we can handle that.