Fabio Quartararo: “It feels good to see your name on top”

Once Alex Marquez established himself at the top of the Tuesday MotoGP testing timesheets in Barcelona, only two riders were able to interrupt the Gresini rider’s reign.

The first was fellow Ducati rider and outgoing double world champion Francesco Bagnaia. But the other was a bigger surprise, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

Although Marquez swiftly responded, Quartararo - who had new aero, plus a revised chassis, swingarm and engine to test - kept second place until the chequered flag fell on the 2024 campaign.

“It’s only test, but I forgot!” Quartararo said of seeing his name on top. “Normally we have to turn the page!

“It feels good to see your name on top. Even if it's just test, you go home with a good feeling.

“We are still really far away from the top guys but at least today I could enjoy, make a great pace and do some good laps.”

Returning to the circuit where he finished eleventh in Sunday’s season-ending grand prix, Quartararo set a best lap of 1m 39.199s to finish 0.396s behind Marquez.

The Frenchman said that the revised chassis had offered the clearest improvement, aiding on corner entry.

“We improved a little bit with the new chassis in some areas,” he said. “On traction, we didn't improve yet but the plan is to bring something completely different and a bigger step in Malaysia.

“We improved [on corner entry], where we go from straight to full lean angle. This was the biggest improvement. Now we have to improve from lean angle to pick up.

“But already we found the direction to improve the entry. So now we have to find a way to improve the exit.”

Quartararo added: “We also tried a new engine. We tried a top fairing. Basically the plan was not to be better, but just to feel the same. And the new swingarm, the same thing.

“The way was not to improve, but to see if we can use to reduce a little bit the weight.”

Tuesday also marked the first time that Yamaha had four MotoGP riders on track since 2022, with Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira making their debuts for the new Pramac Yamaha team.

“It's great to have four riders, four factory bikes,” Quartararo said. 

“Also riders coming from two different manufacturers and engineers coming from different manufacturers and I think that we make some steps during today's practice.”

Asked what he had been seen discussing with Miller, Quartararo replied: “I spoke only for a few minutes about how his feeling was, and also he didn't put yet the hard front.

“I think that to understand our bike, one day is not enough. But it is quite important to know and hear their feedback. Because I think this bike has some really strong points, like the front feeling, but also a lot of weak points that we have to improve.”

Factory team-mate Alex Rins was eighth quickest.