PETRONAS Yamaha SRT in Top Form at Chilly Aragón

16-10-2020

PETRONAS Yamaha SRT in Top Form at Chilly Aragón

Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli end Aragon GP opening day second and third.

After a slightly delayed start to Friday MotoGP action at MotorLand Aragón, due to the cold track temperatures, PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli showed that they are in top form once again. The pair ended day one of the Aragon GP second and third respectively.

Quartararo had a strong opening practice session, staying within the top-three places for the entirety of the 45 minutes. The Frenchman did experience a Turn 8 crash on his final flying lap, but still finished the session third with a 1min 50.142secs lap. Fabio stayed at the sharp end throughout FP2 and enjoyed a period of time at the top of the timesheets as well. His fastest time of 1min 48.020secs placed him second in the session, and overall.

Although Morbidelli’s FP1 session came to an early end, after a Turn 14 crash with just over eight minutes to go, the Italian ended the 45 minutes with the second fastest lap time: 1min 49.951secs. Immediately up to speed in the afternoon session, Franco placed his Yamaha YZR-M1 at the top of the timesheets in the early part of FP2. Come the end of the 45-minute session, Morbidelli’s 1min 48.218secs lap saw him end the session, and the day, third.

The MotoGP FP3 session will begin at 10.25am local time (4.25pm MYT) for Fabio and Franco tomorrow, with qualifying due to get underway at 2.10pm local time (8.10pm MYT).

Fabio Quartararo

"It was not an easy day, but it was quite positive: we had a strange crash in FP1, I’m still not completely sure why it happened, but FP2 was great. Tomorrow it looks like we will need to do some laps with the soft rear tyre; I think it could be a good option for the race because the rhythm is good, but not great. In general though, it was a positive day. I’m so happy that in the afternoon we had a great feeling with the front tyre, because it wasn’t there in the morning. I think tomorrow afternoon it will be important to not lose this rhythm, but also to make sure we are prepared for the race as well."

Franco Morbidelli

"It was a positive day for us and we have started the weekend well, in fact all Yamahas were on top! This morning the conditions were tricky, the temperatures were low and the wind was blowing quite a lot. We seem to suffer a bit less than others in these conditions though. I made a mistake this morning: I had a slow lap because of a yellow flag, then I started to push again too quickly and I crashed. Although we have a good lap time from today, I will still try to push tomorrow. I think we can improve because the weather forecast says the conditions should be slightly better and there will be more rubber on the track."