Quartararo explains Yamaha Austrian MotoGP struggles: “We don't have this extra grip”

Yamaha’s issues in MotoGP have generally boiled down to one of two things in recent years: power, and grip.

In Austria, Fabio Quartararo was not complaining about horsepower following the Sprint. Instead, it was grip in the opening laps that had cost the #20.

“Checking our pace this morning [in FP2], it was not so bad,” Quartararo said. “Riding alone, we know that our strong point is braking. With nobody in front, we brake super hard in Turn 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9, but with people in front of us this is more complicated.

“As usual in a Sprint, in the first laps when everyone is pushing like it's a time attack to create a gap to the riders behind, we don't have this extra grip.

“I defended my position a lot, but I made mistakes. After the first lap, I was in a good position, P10, but it was difficult to maintain it.

“Then there were circumstances that made the Sprint pretty tough, but we did the best we could do today.”

Rins retires

Quartararo’s issues were not entirely shared by his teammate Alex Rins, who had made bike changes to his YZR-M1 to try to help him control the rear lifting in the Red Bull Ring’s several hard braking zones.

“I had a good start,” Rins said, “but lap by lap I was struggling to ride the bike. I tried a different setting for the Sprint to avoid the rear lifting, but it wasn't good.”

Rins retired on lap 10, but after he pulled out of the British Grand Prix two weeks ago through continued injury problems, this time it was a problem with the bike that saw Rins retire.

“It was tough, I had a mechanical problem on the bike,” Rins said. “I felt the bike was slow. I tried to understand what happened, but when I noticed less and less power, I headed to the box to maybe save this engine. Physically I was ok.”