Fabio Quartararo last in the top speed standings on Friday and with a curious problem at the end of the start/finish – Franco Morbidelli copes much better
While the top speed standings were surprisingly led by Suzuki on MotoGP Friday at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, reigning World Champion Fabio Quartararo finds himself 24th and last in the FT2 top speed table on his Yamaha on Friday night.
“This is what was to be expected,” says Quartararo, who has wanted more top speed on the Yamaha M1 for months. This wish has not been fulfilled so far, even with the updates for the 2022 season, and so the defending champion only says: “The speed is not a surprise.”
Specifically, Quartararo’s M1 was 11.3km/h off the Suzuki GSX-RR of Alex Rins at the end of the long start/finish straight at Losail on Friday, and as well as P1 in the top speed table, he also finished P1 in the day’s lap time results. In this classification, Quartararo just made it into the top 10 with P8. The practice did not go without problems for him.
“I feel like I’m at the limit, but we haven’t reached our real limit,” said Quartararo, explaining, “At the moment I don’t feel very comfortable going out on a flying lap. That was already the case during the tests. Today we were missing something again. I was fast in the first two sectors, but then we are missing something. We need to understand why now. “
Quartararo with curious problem at end of start/finish
During the course of the evening practice session, Quartararo was seen to enter the asphalt run-off zone at one point at the end of the start/finish straight, before continuing his ride after a wide turn but without crashing. It was not a brake problem, nor was it a problem with the ride-height device, he reported.
The mapping switching system didn’t work properly,” Quartararo explained. “When I pressed the button with my thumb to change the mapping, everything fell apart. I then had to change it again. But I was able to continue riding because I didn’t need another mapping change. It wasn’t the ride height device, because I operate that with my finger. “
Morbidelli happy: Not the slowest for once in Qatar
Compared to Quartararo, teammate Franco Morbidelli did much better on Friday. He finished fifth in the timesheets. In the top speed table he was anything but last in 15th place. This is a completely new feeling for the Italian, who has never had up-to-date material at his disposal at this circuit.
2021 and 2020 Morbidelli rode an aged 2019 Yamaha in the Petronas team in Qatar respectively. In 2019 he sat on a 2018 Yamaha and in his rookie season at Marc VDS in 2018 he sat on a aged Honda.
“I was always the slowest in the top speed measurement here in all my MotoGP years. Now, on my first real race weekend with the factory team, I am in the middle of the field in terms of top speed. Therefore, from a personal point of view, I have to be happy,” Morbidelli said.
“Of course,” the new Yamaha factory rider qualifies, “from a general point of view, from the manufacturer’s point of view, we have to improve. But for me personally, in terms of top speed, today is still a good day. “
What Dovizioso would change about the Yamaha M1
For RNF-Yamaha, positions 14 (Andrea Dovizioso) and 24 (Darryn Binder) jumped out in the timesheet on Friday. MotoGP rookie Binder, however, was just 0.140 seconds behind Luca Marini, who rides a current Ducati GP22 in the VR46 team. In the top speed standings, Dovizioso and Binder were just ahead of Quartararo in 21st and 23rd.
When Dovizioso was asked on Friday what he would change first on the Yamaha M1 if he could, he did not answer with “more top speed”. Instead, the experienced Italian says: “I would improve the grip on the rear wheel. “
