Unhappy Fabio Quartararo from P1 to out of Q2: “Didn’t expect to be that slow”

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo says he “didn’t expect to be that far” off the pace in second practice for the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix after going from first to 12th in 10 minutes.

The 2021 world champion anticipated on Thursday that Thailand would be a better weekend for Yamaha, as the stiffer rear Michelin tyres brought to Buriram would not see its rivals take their usual grip advantage.

With just over 10 minutes to go in second practice, Quartararo was fastest of all on his M1 having been strong throughout the session to that point.

But come the chequered flag he had been knocked out of the Q2 places to 12th, 0.591s off the pace, having only found 0.066s on the lap that provisionally put him first earlier in the session.

“Well, the day was not super positive for us,” Quartararo told the media, including Crash.net, on Friday.

“The pace was quite ok because we were really pushing like hell from lap one.

“But we clearly see that we miss a lot of grip in the time attack and we are not able to be fast.

“We were quite similar to them in pace, but we are pushing like hell and they are just checking the tyres how they are and we are just missing a lot. So, it was not a great day for us.

“I expected more from the GP. To be honest, I didn’t expect to be that far, especially on one lap.

“So, yeah, a little bit disappointed about today but I didn’t expect to be that fast on the pace but I didn’t expect to be that slow in the time attack.

“So, we have to figure out why.

“I mean, it’s the same issue as usual, the grip clearly - also from Turn 1, Turn 3 - from slow corners we have no rear contact and this is what is clearly missing, especially on one lap.”

The lack of rear grip is forcing Quartararo to stop the M1 exclusively with the front tyre, which is adding to his time loss around the Buriram track.

“This is mainly one our biggest problems is the bike is moving a lot, pitching a lot,” he added.

“I didn’t want really to make this kind of braking because to lift the rear tyre that much is just losing time.

“So, the bike as soon as you want to brake harder is pitching a lot and we are braking only with the front tyre.

“The rear tyre is never helping us to stop and this is one of the things we really have to improve.”

Team-mate Alex Rins, who was 18th at the end of practice, says he has told Yamaha repeatedly about what it needs to do to improve the bike’s lack of rear grip but the team has so far been unable to address it.

“For the races that we have done and the experience I have with the bike, I tried to explain my feedback to the guys, to the engineers, electronic guys, and still they are not able to find a solution for me,” Rins said.