Fourth on Friday for Fabio at Gran Premio De Teruel

23-10-2020

Fourth on Friday for Fabio at Gran Premio De Teruel

Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli end Friday practice at MotorLand Aragón fourth and 15th.

In action for the third consecutive weekend, and at MotorLand Aragón for the second time in a row, PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s MotoGP riders got to grips with the windy conditions at the circuit today. Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli end day one of the Gran Premio de Teruel fourth and 15th respectively.

Quartararo opted to focus on gathering data during FP1, instead of setting a time attack lap, and stayed on the same tyres for the whole session. His best lap of 1min 49.621secs saw him end the 45 minutes 17th. The Frenchman also spent some of FP2 completing a long run, before setting a 1min 48.164secs lap in the closing stages of the session, ending both FP2 and the day fourth.

Team-mate Franco put in some fast laps in the early stages of FP1, but also chose not to set an all-out flying lap. He ended the session 5th with a best lap of 1min 49.100secs. Franco started FP2 strongly, immediately setting times that placed the Italian in the top-three, and was able to spend the session testing improvements made to the bike. At the end of the 45 minutes his best lap time of 1min 48.612secs lap saw him finish the session, and combined times, 15th.

The PETRONAS Yamaha SRT pairing will head out on track at 10.55am local time (4.55pm MYT) for FP3 tomorrow, with qualifying due to start at 2.50pm local time (8.50pm MYT).

Fabio Quartararo

"We tried lots of things today, especially in the rear end of the bike; some things worked, while others didn’t. There are still some things we need to improve with the bike, and to improve our race pace, but it was a positive day overall and I think we are in a good position for tomorrow. It’s been good today to follow some other riders that were successful here last week, as you can always learn something from them, and I can see where I was losing time to them. I think there are three corners that we are weaker in but I know what I need to work on and how to improve. I still have a bit of a bruise on my leg, but it isn’t bothering me and physically I’m fine."

Franco Morbidelli

"Today I felt quite good and we were able to work on the bike a little bit, able to improve the feeling slightly. We improved how the bike handles mid-corner and I was able to feel the difference immediately. I’m happy about that, although the final position from today is not great. We know we need to find a little bit of speed to help us in FP3 and qualifying. The morning conditions were quite good and tomorrow it is supposed to be even better, so I’m confident of completing a lap to go straight to Q2. So, tomorrow the aim will be to try to get into the top-ten and improve the bike further, in particular under braking. We will see what happens."