Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli returned to the Mandalika track for the Grand Prix of Indonesia. The duo refamiliarized themselves with the track in the morning session to get into the mix for top billing in the afternoon, securing first and second place respectively in the combined free practice results.
Quartararo made the most of the drying track conditions to tweak his bike‘s Mandalika Test settings in his search to find more grip at the still dirty track. Testing a hard-medium tyre combination, the Frenchman clocked a best lap of 1‘34.793s on lap 19/21 that put him in 16th place, 1.294s from the top.
With the afternoon session perfectly sunny, El Diablo had hoped to make further strides, but a small issue early on lost him time. The slight misfortune only spurred the Frenchman on, however. By the halfway stage, he was already inside the top 4, a position which he later improved with a 1‘32.570s for provisional first. The time attacks started with five minutes remaining. Quartararo responded by posting a 1‘31.608s on lap 16/18. The time was fast enough to earn him first place in the FP2 and the combined free practice results, with a 0.030s advantage over his teammate in second place.
Morbidelli had enjoyed making solid testing progress at the Mandalika track at the start of the year, and it was clear from the get-go that he meant business again in Indonesia this weekend. He set a fast pace, spending most of the session steadily inside the provisional top 10 before fitting some soft tyres to produce a 1‘33.881s for a short-lived P1. That time, set on lap 16/19, was quick enough to finish FP1 in fourth position, 0.382s from first.
Confident after the productive morning session, the Italian fully focused on making progress with his bike‘s performance on the dry during FP2. He tried various settings and the medium tyre option in preparation for a dry race on Sunday. He put his findings to the test in the final stages during a second time attack and clocked a 1‘31.683s on lap 17/18, which was only beaten by his teammate. He secured second place in the FP2 results and combined FP timesheets, with a 0.255s gap to the rider in third place.
