Fabio Quartararo struggles with terrible vibration but Yamaha remain bullish
Alex Rins 10th and Fabio Quartararo 11th on Friday at Phillip Island
Fabio Quartararo was spotted dealing with dramatic vibration on the rear of his Yamaha on Friday at the Australian MotoGP.
A disrupted day - FP1 was rained off - ended with Alex Rins 10th and teammate Quartararo 11th.
Quartararo was seen describing the vibration he was riding with when he returned to the box.
“It was a more than tricky Practice session,” Quartararo said.
“At this track, you need a lot of laps to really find the limit.
"We could have used some more laps to get to the 100%, but we were really close to Q2 in the end, and I felt quite good.
"I'm feeling better than two weeks ago in Japan, but we need to improve in the last sector here and especially in the last corner.
"Let's see what happens tomorrow. If it doesn't rain, we can maybe have some more grip from the tarmac, which can help. I think we have the possibility to go into Q2 tomorrow."
Rins added: "It was a good day for me. It was stressful, though!
"We waited in the box for a long time this morning: one minute we're about to head out on track and the next we're not. But we made it during this Practice session.
"The track looks quite good, but a bit bumpy here and there. But I'm in Q2, and I'm super happy about this. I put a lot of effort into it, and it's so important.
"We have the chance to start more towards the front, and the first laps of the Sprint and Race are quite critical. So, yes, overall it was a good day."
Team manager Maio Meregalli added: "After missing out on 45 minutes of crucial FP1 time, we knew there was work to do for us this afternoon and that the time attack in the Practice would get very tight.
"We tried to utilize the available dry track time the best we could to get ready for a very intense Practice shoot-out.
"In the end, there's not a lot between Alex's and Fabio's time, just 0.015s, but it was the difference between a direct spot in Q2 and having to take part in Q1.
"But we feel that Fabio is in with a chance tomorrow in Q1. Knowing that we need to improve in Sector 4 the most, we will study today's data and try to get as close to the limit as possible.
"We just hope for dry conditions tomorrow so we can put in an effort to get the best grid positions possible in qualifying, and also for the fans at the track so they can enjoy a full day of track action."
