The first day of testing at Mandalika divided the drivers: while Aleix Espargaró was unhappy with the dirty track, Fabio Quartararo was less concerned about the conditions he encountered. It took the defending champion around 30 laps to learn the track and study the performance of the tyres, but then he completed a job that, in the Frenchman’s opinion, “was worth it”.
Fifth place on the time sheet was meaningless as the time attack was missing. In fact, Fabio dedicated himself mainly to the evaluation of the parts tested in Sepang last week.
“I’m very happy because this morning the conditions were a bit like motocross”, Quartararo told the official MotoGP website, before expressing his satisfaction with his performance: “In the afternoon I felt much better, we had a great pace. I marked my best time on a medium tire that had 16 laps. I’m actually very happy. We still have two days. We tried the aero package again, some settings on the rear. It worked well, so I’m pretty happy, especially with our pace with used tires”.
Quartararo has confirmed that there has been no news on the Yamaha between the Sepang and Mandalika tests. Therefore, he was able to work to adapt the bike to a track that MotoGP is discovering this weekend: “In fact, we tested the same things as in Sepang to confirm them here as well. Today we did some aerodynamic tests, we only tested this aerodynamic package. We worked on the electronics because we have a lot of adjustments to make, while we’re shooting on a new track. At first we couldn’t make any adjustments, but in the end we were able to work on it a bit more.”
Long-term performance is feasible for the Frenchman: “I haven’t been able to time attack, and for me it’s something we have to work on, because I think we have a very good pace. But we need some practice with new tires, because I feel that it will be something very important for us this year. It will be used to try to always be in the front row, in the worst case in second.”
“The most important thing will be to work a bit like we did in 2019, trying to get a fast lap every session,” added the Yamaha rider.
In Sepang, Fabio Quartararo complained about the lack of “important” news on his Yamaha, but this situation allows him to have the direction to follow with the M1. The Yamaha has maintained its strengths, such as its smoothness in fast corners, which are many in Mandalika:
“I have understood the bike for a long time! Since Sepang, I really understood where we are with the bike, and even today, as soon as there was enough grip. In the end I would say that I do not need time to see the situation of Yamaha. I know it and I know how it is the bike behaved in the first tests”.
“I know what worked in Malaysia, it should work here. On tracks where there are fast corners, it’s not bad. I think the fast corners are one of our strengths. If it didn’t work there, I think we would really have to worry!” concluded.
