Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP |News details:Quartararo Shows Promising Pace on San Marino GP Friday

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Today, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP got busy preparing for the upcoming Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini races. Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins secured 9th and 17th place in the Practice, putting them on the Q2 and the Q1 entry list respectively.

Misano Adriatico (Italy), 6th September 2024

The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team got back to work at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli today in the FP1 and Practice session to prepare for Saturday’s and Sunday’s Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini Sprint and Race whilst simultaneously testing a new chassis. Fabio Quartararo showed solid pace and ended the Practice in 9th position, earning him a place in Q2. Álex Rins ended the day in 17th, which means he will take part in Q1 tomorrow.

It was a sunny start to the San Marino GP, and Quartararo was pushing for a top-10 position all the way through the Friday. He was already holding a provisional Q2 place before the Practice-session time attack got underway. By staying out when other riders changed tyres, and pushing to the limit, El Diablo put up a fight and improved his time. It proved a strategical masterstroke. With yellow flags out just a few minutes before the end of the session, many riders only had one lap to put in their bid for a direct place in Q2. As a result, the Frenchman got the job done. He ended the session in ninth place, 0.628s off the top of the rankings, with a best time of 1’31.313s, set on lap 27/30.

Rins started the San Marino GP weekend motivated to build upon the work he did during the private Misano test and the Aragon GP. However, in the afternoon Practice he was not able to find the lap times needed to breach into the top 10. The Spaniard pushed hard and posted a 1’31.886s on lap 20/24. It initially put him in P13, but with the pace picking up, he was relegated to 17th place in the Practice results, 1.201s from the top.

The teammates will be back in action for FP2, held tomorrow from 10:10 - 10:40 (GMT +2). The qualifying sessions will follow from 10:50 - 11:30, and the 13-lap Sprint will start at 15:00.

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director

It was a good start to the San Marino race weekend, especially for Fabio. He was feeling good right from the jump in this morning's FP1. The objective was the top 10 in the Practice, and he pushed hard to make it happen. It's an encouraging result: being in Q2 directly can only help him in the remainder of the weekend. He tried a new chassis today, and so did Álex. Both of them gave positive feedback, so the plan is to keep using it the next two days. Álex's lap times improved compared to the private Misano test. We will analyse the data and tweak the bike's set-up this evening so tomorrow morning in FP2 we can help him make another step.

Fabio Quartararo

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

After this morning, we knew it was going to be tough. I was in P5, but we have to take into account that only we and Honda tested here before. I expected to have a tough afternoon, but in the end we are inside the top 10. That was our goal, so I'm pretty happy. I think that the new chassis that we tried today was a bit better. Hopefully we can find a bit more grip tomorrow, trying some different things.

Álex Rins

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

We tried a new chassis, and it works quite well. It's difficult to make a comparison because the grip level is higher now here, but today I rode one second faster than I did during the test. So, for sure, the bike was a little bit better today. Or maybe my head was in test mode back then, so I wasn't pushing like I do during a GP weekend. Either way, this chassis was a little bit better, but we're still struggling a bit. We mixed the setting we used during the test with the setting we used in Aragon, but it didn't work as I hoped. It wasn't that bad, but there's still a big margin to improve.