Reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo and his Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli enjoyed a strong start to the Indonesian Grand Prix weekend at the new Mandalika Bay circuit, bouncing back from their Qatar disappointment to end Friday practice first and second.
Having struggled in Qatar thanks to the effects of the Lusail circuit’s long straights on the slowest machine on the grid (in terms of top speed at least), the fast and flowing Mandalika circuit promised a chance to regain ground – and that’s exactly what the duo were able to achieve despite more than one roadblock thrown Quartararo’s way in particular.
Starting the day on a damp but drying track and unable to take the maximum from FP1, he was then struck down with a technical problem early in FP2 when warning lights came on on the dash of his preferred bike.
But despite that, the champion was still able to find more than his rivals, topping the day by a mere 0.03s from his team-mate.
“In the afternoon we started from the base of the test,” Quartararo explained, “but unfortunately I only did one and a half laps before having to take a bike with a different setting, but it wasn’t so bad.
“In the end, it was a good day, but there are still things to improve. Tomorrow we need to back to back test the bike from today and the bike from the test, but it’s not too bad.
“You never know what to expect, with new tarmac, new [tyre] carcass, but if the conditions had been the same as the test then I would have expected to be in the top five.
“Of course when you’re P1 it is much better, but in the test I was one of the fastest for both one lap and pace, so today is more or less what I expected.”
Though Mandalika is a circuit very much of the type that Yamaha’s inline-four engine configuration and its high corner speed prefers, Morbidelli nonetheless believes that it wasn’t just the nature of the track that led to the strong times.
Instead, with grip levels falling since the test thanks to elevated temperatures, an emergency resurfacing operation to address issues that emerged during last month’s three-day outing, and a revised Michelin rear tyre carcass designed to cope with the higher temperatures, Morbidelli believes the reduced traction helped Yamaha rather than hindering it the same way it has in the past.
Normally, low grip is one of the downfalls of the Yamaha M1 thanks to the issues it’s had in recent years with acceleration out of corners – but with so many fast turns at the Indonesian circuit, Morbidelli insisted that the extra stability the bike has more than made up for it.
“It felt like the same bike as Qatar but with a lot less grip,” he explained. “The carcass is different and it performs less, but apparently we suffered less than the other guys.
“It’s difficult to jump to conclusions yet, but I was hoping in Qatar that with less grip we would struggle less – and today we struggled less.
“What I was hoping for happened today, but we were also fast on Friday in Qatar so let’s see.
“Our bike is really easy to ride. The Yamaha is really immediate, really rider friendly, as we’ve always said.
“Every movement that happens on the bike, every upset, is always very smooth and very mellow. You don’t get scared or afraid or upset too much when it happens.
“The problem is that sometimes we’re not able to put the same power on the ground as the other guys, but today that wasn’t the case.”
