Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha “unrideable” in Aragon MotoGP sprint

Fabio Quartararo says his struggle to 11th in the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix sprint was down to his Yamaha being made “unrideable” by unexpected rear chatter.

The 2021 world champion endured a torrid Friday at Aragon as his struggled for rear traction throughout both practice sessions and fell into Q1.

He made it through the first phase of qualifying on Saturday to put his M1 ninth on the grid, and was running inside the points in the sprint before a near-miss with KTM’s Maverick Vinales dropped him to 11th late on.

Fabio Quartararo says his Yamaha became “unrideable” after just a few laps due to an unexpected rear chatter issue on the soft tyre he was running.

“I had a lot of chatter from the rear from lap three, and unfortunately I could not push and every lap it was worse and worse,” he explained to the media on Saturday afternoon.

“To be honest, I don’t understand how I made 1m47.9s in the last lap because the bike was unrideable for this thing on the rear.

“I was expecting less feeling on the bike during the sprint, so I think tomorrow with the medium rear can be a good one.”

On the chatter he expanded: “I never expected to have that much chatter and unfortunately we had it. Really strange but I hope to not have it tomorrow.”

Electronics gain for Fabio Quartararo on Saturday at Aragon MotoGP

Branding his the bike he had on Friday as “dangerous”, Quartararo says he was able to make a step on Saturday by improving the M1’s electronics.

“It was difficult not to improve,” he added.

“Was dangerous yesterday to ride the bike as we had it and today it was much better.

“We are working in a good way and this, the work we do here is really important because in some tracks it already happens a little bit the style that happens here.

“So, like Misano, Australia it happens, so it’s good and I think even if sometimes the weekend is more difficult we always learn.

“Electronics [improved the bike today], that this year I feel how important it is because I changed my riding style completely for the throttle and the settings.

“And as soon as you change something you can really feel the difference and I never expected to have that much gain by the electronics.”

Quartararo suggested on Friday that he may have to race with the medium rear for the sprint having felt so bad on the soft, but ultimately used the latter to gather data.

Looking ahead to the grand prix, he believes a top seven result is a realistic goal with his pace on the medium compound.

“I think realistically tomorrow we can finish between seventh and 10th,” he said.

“Of course, I want better but I will not say I want to fight for the podium because we clearly don’t have the pace. But between seventh and 10th we can be happy.”