The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team started Round 10 of the MotoGP World Championship at the Sachsenring looking for a solid base set-up suiting the twisty track and evaluating different tyre options. Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli secured 7th and 15th place respectively in the combined FP results.
Quartararo made steady progress in the morning session. He gradually found his pace on his first run and began to dip under the 1‘22s-mark. He worked himself up to second place with a 1‘21.557s on lap 11/25. He used his second run to improve his race set-up and ended FP1 in third place, 0.078s from first.
El Diablo used the hot afternoon session to find a good feeling on the hard-spec tyres, but he didn‘t feel like he could ride on the limit yet. He improved his time to a 1‘20.399s on lap 22/22 when he fitted a soft rear tyre and found more than a second compared to his morning result. He ended the first day in Saxony in seventh place, 0.381s off the fastest time.
Morbidelli was pleased to confirm some of his findings from the Catalan Test during the Friday session. He wrapped up his first run at the Sachsenring by setting a best morning time of 1‘21.939s on lap 9/27. At the time it earned him a top-10 placement. He ultimately completed FP1 in 14th position, 0.460s from the top.
Like his teammate, the number-21 rider shifted to the hard tyres in the afternoon to establish if it was a good option for the race. He too found that the hard tyre wasn‘t working as well for him compared to the medium option in the cooler morning session. Still, the Italian shaved off more than a second of his morning time. He clocked a 1‘20.856s on lap 19/21, which left him 15th and 0.838s off the P1 time.
