Uphill Battle for Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP on Portimão Friday

"We are struggling quite a bit. This is a track where grip is very important. When everything is set up right, as a rider you can enjoy riding here like it's a roller coaster. This is a track I really like, but today my feeling was not great on the bike, so ...

The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team got straight to work on the Grand Prix of Portugal Friday. Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins used FP1 and most of the Practice to prepare for a tense shoot-out. They ended the afternoon session in 13th and 18th place respectively and will take part in tomorrow's Q1.Quartararo finished FP1 in P11 and was keen to push in the afternoon session. When the Practice got underway, the Frenchman showed he meant business by featuring inside the top 10 until the final 20 minutes. However, crucially, some light rain started to fall just when El Diablo was due to begin his time attack, ...

"This is a demanding track, and if you make a mistake, like when we missed corner 1 in the Practice, the whole lap is cancelled. Today, we struggled with a mix of problems, maybe because of the low grip and the mixed conditions. Today's weather out on track ...

"We faced more challenges than anticipated at the start of the Portimão weekend. Today's results reflect the poor track conditions. Unfortunately, we had sudden rain in both session which didn't help either. Compared to our rivals we tend to struggle more ...