Yamaha react to “uphill battle” after grim competitiveness at COTA

Fabio Quartararo was handed a reminder - if he ever needed it - that improving the Yamaha will be a long-term goal on Saturday at the Americas MotoGP.

Quartararo finished the sprint race 15th, and teammate Alex Rins was 16th.

Only Repsol Honda’s Luca Marini was behind them, of the riders who completed the sprint.

The writing was on the wall for Yamaha as early as Friday.

They ended practice in 17th and 18th, with only the four Hondas going slower.

Despite the optimism in the camp over tying Quartararo down to the best-paid contract in MotoGP, this weekend so far has been a harsh reminder of the competitiveness of their bike.

“After the tough Friday sessions, we knew this race weekend would be an uphill battle,” said team director Massimo Meregalli.

“Following a less than ideal start yesterday, we had a lot of things to try this morning, but we didn't have that much time – just the 30-minute FP2 before qualifying.

“In the end, Alex and Fabio qualified further down the starting grid than we would have liked, in P15 and P16, and we knew this would make the sprint and [Sunday’s] race even harder.

“We went into the 10-lap sprint with the objective to get some useful data, and we will make adjustments accordingly.

“We'll try the tweaked settings in [Sunday’s] warm up and hopefully this will pay off during the race.”

Quartararo said about his sprint: “I was behind Alex Marquez, and I was faster in Sector 2 and 3, but he was faster in Sector 1 and 4.

“Every time I caught up, he pulled away again, so I couldn't overtake him on the last laps.

“That said, on every run we did this weekend, we tried quite big changes on the bike.

“Also, for the sprint race we went out with a bike that we never used, and I think that's something good about being in the position that we are in now: we can try big changes.

“I think that the way in which we are working is good, even if the results don't reflect it. We are trying things we never did in the past.

“[Sunday] we will try something new again in the morning, and if that gives us new ideas for the race, then we will try that.

“We don't have to be conservative in our current position, and trying different things is giving us a sense of direction to work towards, and this gives us positive ideas for the future.”

Rins, who won the 2023 Americas MotoGP with LCR Honda, reacted to his sprint: “It was a very difficult sprint, even more so because I got involved in the problem that Marco [Bezzecchi] had at the start.

“Then, in the second corner, I went outside the track with him, and I was last.

“Then I tried to ride on my own and recover positions, I did some overtakes.

“It was hard. We were struggling in the second half of the sprint race.

“The last few laps, I was not feeling enough support on the front.

“We're checking why this is the case. I need to adapt and find out how to ride in a slightly different way to not have these problems.”