Quartararo suffers “really, really tough day” as Yamaha struggles for grip at Aragon

The low-grip Aragon track was a prime suspect to expose the grip deficiencies of Yamaha’s YZR-M1 machine and unfortunately for Fabio Quartararo and the Japanese manufacturer the issue became badly exposed.

There was no shortage of sympathy for the luckless Frenchman whose Yamaha machine snapped and jumped seemingly on the exit of every corner around the track during Friday practice.

To add insult to injury, Quartararo’s Yamaha was joint-slowest through the speed trap, almost 10 kph slower than Brad Binder’s KTM. The inability to put power down on the tarmac was undoubtedly a key factor in the speed difference.

With frantic gesticulation while out on track, it was clear that Quartararo wasn’t pleased. He left the garage as soon as the session was over, preferring to cool down before he dived into the debriefs. At least Quartararo could see the funny side when he spoke to the media, as he hops from one end of the grid to the other this weekend.

“We almost made the pole position on the other side [at the back of the grid],” joked the Frenchman initially. “A really, really tough day especially with the soft tyre. We don’t understand what really happened with electronics and stuff but not the best day and especially [since] we don’t understand why.

“The problem is that you never know when to expect it and in our case, it is not the best when you are on the bike fully in angle and you never know if you’re going to lose it on the edge or on the exit and I didn’t make any lap. The four laps I did was all cutting and making mistakes so we will have to find a solution.”

When quizzed on the set-up of the bike, Quartararo was adamant that this was not the issue.

“The set-up is good,” said the 2021 MotoGP champion. “We have to just understand why when we change rubber it completely changes our bike, and our electronics become crazy.”

Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli was equally disappointed in the session understanding the problem suffered by his riders as Quartararo and Alex Rins finished the Friday in 18th and 15th respectively.

“They are suffering the same problem, it’s the rear grip,” Meregalli said. “They are losing the rear a lot. Every time they try, they lose the rear. So they have to try to understand how to at least reduce the slide and improve the performance.

“You know at the beginning of the session I was a bit more optimistic, especially after FP1 but for sure the increased temperature [meant] the grip dropped down even more than before. Honestly I did not hear any comment because Fabio left to go and get changed but I think it was very easy to understand.”

There’s a lot of work for the Yamaha team tonight to go over the data to see why the soft tyre is causing so many problems. Quartararo will be praying they find a golden fix for the bike’s woes.