Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP |News details:Quartararo Battles Tyre Wear in Barcelona to Finish Monster Energy Catalan GP Race in Fifth Place

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Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Fabio Quartararo knew that tyre management would be key and struck a balance between pushing hard and saving tyres to profit at the end of the 24-lap Monster Energy Grand Prix of Catalonia Race. He secured fifth place. Álex Rins also engaged in battles in Barcelona whilst keeping an eye on tyre life, but a crash in Turn 12 on lap 15 meant his first NC Sunday race result of the 2025 season.

Montmeló (Spain), 7th September 2025

The Monster Energy Grand Prix of Catalonia Race was a tough outing for the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammates, ending with mixed results. Fabio Quartararo pushed to a fifth place and earned 11 points. Álex Rins was unlucky to crash out of P15, ten laps before the chequered flag.

Quartararo launched from P2 and settled into fourth, aiming to stay with the leaders, but soon came under pressure from Enea Bastianini, who passed him on lap 3. Unable to match the pace, Quartararo shifted his focus to defending against Luca Marini and Johann Zarco, holding fifth until lap 9 when Zarco overtook him in Turn 1–2, followed by Marini a lap later. But El Diablo would have his revenge. Zarco's crash on lap 11 promoted Quartararo to sixth, and with two laps remaining he reclaimed fifth by passing Marini in Turn 5 to hold the position to the finish,14.409s behind the winner.

It was a rollercoaster race for Rins. He began the 24-lap contest from P19 but was pushed wide early, dropping to 22nd before recovering to P18 by the end of lap one. The number-42 gained two more spots after Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi crashed at Turn 1, joining the group fighting for tenth. Benefiting from rivals' penalties and crashes, he climbed up to P13 but was soon overtaken by Joan Mir and Fermin Aldeguer and slipped to 15th. Zarco's crash bumped him back up, but Franco Morbidelli passed him 4 laps later. Rins was trying to stay close to the Italian whilst managing his tyres, when a crash at the end of lap 15 ended his race.

After today's results, Quartararo is now in 8th place in the overall standings with 129 points, and Rins holds 19th position with 45 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP are 6th in the team championship with 174 points, and Yamaha remain in 5th position in the constructor championship with 160 points.

The MotoGP paddock will soon travel to Italy for the Grand Prix of San Marino, which will be held at the Misano World Circuit – Marco Simoncelli from 12-14 September.

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP

"We anticipated a challenging race, and it was. Fabio executed a disciplined strategy: he maintained proximity to the front riders early on, defending his position effectively on the opening laps, all while managing tyre wear across the 24 laps. While not as dynamic as Saturday's Sprint, it was a mature performance that completed a strong weekend following the turnaround on Saturday morning. Álex faced a tougher outing, with the FP2 crash impacting his grid position and overall momentum this weekend. Starting from P19 today, he was able to engage in more battles than in previous rounds and felt better on the bike than he did yesterday, which is encouraging. With another GP coming up, we'll focus on building consistency and making further progress."

Fabio Quartararo

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

"Yesterday, I could really enjoy the Sprint race and the fights – today we had less of that. The beginning of the Race was really tough, but I could take care of the tyres a lot, and Luca burned up his tyres. This allowed me to overtake him at the end. It was a great experience for me to ride defensively, also under braking and everything – so, yeah, it was not a bad race. We started the weekend in a difficult situation, but we finished it in a good way. The position we finished in today is a 'real position', and it was also according to my expectations, although I did expect to be a bit closer to the top guys. We will continue working on understanding better how the conditions affect our performance."

Álex Rins

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider

"I hit the wall because I lost the front. It's unlucky, because we weren't riding so bad. We improved compared to yesterday. We looked into some data of my teammate, and this helped me to do some different lines and brake later. In that moment, we weren't riding badly, but 2-3 laps before the crash I started to struggle with the front – maybe because of the temperatures or because I pushed too much. I tried to keep calm and not overheat the tyres too much, but in corner 12 I just lost the front."