“Difficult” for Fabio Quartararo “to make a great race” at Barcelona MotoGP

Fabio Quartararo ended Friday at the MotoGP Solidarity Grand Prix of Barcelona in 14th, having struggled to find grip at a cold Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Compared to the Catalan Grand Prix in May, where track temperatures were in the 40C-range during the afternoon sessions, Practice for the Solidarity Grand Prix had a track temperature of only 20C.

Typically, lower temperatures mean better grip from the track surface, and therefore better lap times.

However, that wasn’t the case on Friday in Barcelona, where track grip seemed to have deteriorated compared to the Catalan Grand Prix and to the detriment of Yamaha, with Fabio Quartararo lamenting a lack of traction from his YZR-M1.

“I think today was really complicated, as expected,” Quartararo said.

“It was really complicated to make a lap time. The feeling was good but just without any traction and in this track especially the traction is the most important.

“We don’t have it, so it will be difficult to go into Q2 and it will be difficult to make a great race here.”

Quartararo was still using the same, new electronics package that Yamaha took to Sepang two weeks ago and which seemed to offer positive benefits, but in Barcelona the grip is so low that those benefits no longer equalled improved performance.

“The problem is the grip is that low that it doesn’t really make a difference,” Quartararo said.

“The spin is maybe a little bit more low, that is quite good also for the tyre life, but in terms of performance it’s exactly the same [as the old electronics].”

The track seemed to offer less lap time in the cooler November temperatures of this weekend’s Solidarity Grand Prix than it did in May’s warmer Catalan Grand Prix.

Quartararo, though, didn’t think the differential was down to the temperature.

“I don’t think it’s really related to the temperature, because this afternoon the temperature was quite nice,” he said.

“But it’s true that the grip was less than in May, that was pretty strange. But usually from Friday to Saturday the track improves quite a lot.”

As a result of that improvement, Quartararo expects the front runners to improve their speed in qualifying on Saturday morning, even if times better than those of the Q2 session at the Catalan Grand Prix are unlikely.

“I think that tomorrow the lap time will be faster,” he said. “I don’t think they will make the same lap time as Q2 from May. But of course they will be really close.”