Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP |News details:Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Search for Grip on Catalan GP Friday

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The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team had a difficult afternoon at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli ended today’s Practice session in 17th and 18th place respectively.

Montmeló (Spain), 1st September 2023

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team’s Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli showed good pace around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in the morning. However, the Practice didn’t go their way when the temperatures went up later that day. They secured 17th and 18th place respectively in the afternoon session, putting them on the entry list for tomorrow’s Q1.

Quartararo made the most of the perfect riding conditions in Barcelona in the morning, taking ninth in the FP1 classification. He did further work on the base set-up in the 1-hour-long afternoon practice, but the Frenchman wasn’t able to produce the hot laps he had hoped for at the end of the session. His 1’40.106s, set on lap 22/22, put him in 17th place in the Practice timesheets, 1.420s from first.

Morbidelli had set himself the goal of improving his Friday results this weekend to increase his chances of securing a place towards the front of the grid. Though the Italian put in diligent work in the morning, wrapping up FP1 in eighth place, it didn’t help him much during the Practice time attack. His best time was cancelled due to a yellow flag. His next best attempt, a 1’40.155s set on lap 20/24, had him finish 18th in the results, 1.469s from the top.

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director

It’s a disappointing start to the Catalan GP. We started the weekend decently in FP1 this morning, but in the afternoon it went downhill. We didn’t get the lap times in that we had hoped for, so both riders are in Q1. This means we have to rally together this evening to come up with some solutions that our riders can try during FP2 tomorrow morning. It will be a tough Super Saturday, but we’ll pull out all the stops to help our riders turn the situation around.

Fabio Quartararo

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

It was difficult day. But last year the Friday was also difficult. Not as much as today, though. Basically, we tried medium, soft, hard-medium. We tried a bit of everything, but we’re struggling with rear grip, I’m overbraking a bit too much, and I struggle with the front. We wanted to try too hard, but the problem is that we don’t have traction. We need to understand why. Especially because this morning I had a good pace on the first five laps. After that the front tyre was destroyed, but as soon as the temperature goes up and the grip is a little bit less, we struggle a lot.

Franco Morbidelli

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

We were able to do a decent job this morning, but this afternoon we struggled a bit more straight away. Then in the time attack, unfortunately, I was not able to put everything together, and I caught a yellow flag on my fastest lap. Anyway, I would have been 0.3s out of a direct entry into Q2, so that’s unfortunate. We have been struggling more on the time attack side than we have been with the pace.