Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Battle to P12 and P17 in Qatar GP Sprint
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Copyright 2024 Yamaha Motor Racing Srl
Starting from P16, Quartararo was keen to advance through the opening corners. He emerged in 13th place as the order settled. But an early battle with Johann Zarco lost the Yamaha man a position. He followed his compatriot past Marco Bezzecchi, and as Fabio Di Giannantonio crashed on lap 3, El Diablo was up to 12th. Quartararo had to multitask, battling Bezzecchi while preparing his move on Zarco. The number-20 rider made it stick with two laps to go and got up to 11th place. But Bezzecchi followed the Frenchman like a shadow. Quartararo did a stellar job to keep him at bay until the final sector. Pushing all the way to the finish line, Quartararo finished the Sprint in 12th position, 0.028s behind Bezzecchi and 12.863s from first.
A strong start from Rins moved him up from P20 to P17 in the first sector. He briefly fell back to 18th as the number-42 rider was engaged in battle with Raul Fernandez. After gaining a place due to Di Giannantonio's crash, the Yamaha rider overtook Joan Mir in his pursuit of Raul Fernandez. However, Mir came back to put up a fight later. Rins was unable to make further moves throughout the remainder of the Sprint but did collect useful data in a first 'race-like' outing with the Yamaha M1, which should be beneficial for tomorrow's full-length Race. He ended the Sprint in 17th place, 15.629s from the winner.
Tomorrow the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammates will be back in action for Warm Up from 15:40 – 15:50 GMT +3, followed by the Race, starting at 20:00.
Massimo Meregalli
Team Director
Fabio Quartararo
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
It was tough. The drop of the tyre was quite big, bigger than we expected. Because of this, the final 3–4 laps were more about tyre conservation. Tomorrow, we'll have double the number of laps, so we are going to be working on that and try to understand why the tyre drop is so much bigger than last year. We have a lot of time tonight to find a solution.
Álex Rins
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
It was a bit hard. We did expect a hard Sprint, but it was a little bit harder than I expected because I couldn't ride my own pace. We started quite well, then we overtook some riders. But when I was riding alone, Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira got away a little bit. I tried to ride at my own pace, and I made a small mistake on the last lap, and Mir overtook me. I was trying to manage the rear tyre as much as possible, but I was struggling a lot on the last 5 laps. So, for sure we will need to take more care with the rear tyre tomorrow. But I did some laps behind competitors and gathered information. So, let's try to improve our bike a little bit for tomorrow, especially in the fast corners! Let's see if we can do this and save the tyres a bit more.
After a difficult Friday, we already knew this Saturday would be a tough one. We didn't get the qualifying positions we had hoped for, but Fabio and Álex still set out in the Sprint with the feeling that they would be able to make up some ground – and they did until the tyres dropped. The tyre degradation is much more severe this time – and also during the test – than it was when we were racing at the Lusail track last November. It will be crucial to understand why this is before tomorrow, as the riders will have to complete 22 laps in the Race. That is what we will be working on tonight, and we will test our solution during the warm-up.