Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Fabio Quartararo had a mixed day at the Mobility Resort Motegi today. While he had good pace, his lap times on the soft tyres were not as big a step as he wanted, and a high-speed crash in Practice ultimately meant he was unable to fight for a direct place in Q2. He finished in 13th position. Franco Morbidelli was unable to challenge for a top-10 result and ended the afternoon session in 15th place, which also puts him on the entry list for Q1.
Quartararo had an overall positive Free Practice 1 session in the morning, which he finished in ninth place, and continued the momentum in the afternoon. Just over the midway stage of the one-hour Practice, the Frenchman clocked a 1‘44.520s on lap 13/21 that put him in second position at the time. However, he later suffered a fast crash in Turn 6. Though he sprained his ankle, El Diablo was quickly back on his feet, but the incident ultimately cost him a chance to defend his provisional spot in Q2. He ended the session in 13th place, 1.031s from first.
Morbidelli had finished the morning session in twelfth place and spent the majority of the afternoon Practice working on improving the bike‘s set-up. The Italian put in a total of 20 laps but was unable to find enough of an improvement to secure himself a spot inside the top 10. His 1‘44.657s best time, set on his very last lap, saw him finish in 15th position, 1.168s from today‘s fastest time.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team will be back in action tomorrow for the Saturday MotoGP sessions: FP2 will be held from 10:10 - 10:40 GMT + 9, followed by qualifying sessions from 10:50 - 11:30, and the Sprint that starts at 15:00.
