Quartararo and Morbidelli Barcelona Bound

22-09-2020

Quartararo and Morbidelli Barcelona Bound

Gran Premi de Catalunya up next for PETRONAS Yamaha SRT.

This weekend will see PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, with riders Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, in action at the Catalan GP – the final round in the September triple header.

After closing the gap in the championship standings to just one point last time out, Quartararo will be heading into the Gran Premi de Catalunya hoping to retake his position at the top of the riders’ championship. The Frenchman has good form at the circuit, after converting his pole position last year to a second place finish.

Team-mate Morbidelli, who continues to recover from a stomach bug, will be aiming to go into the eighth round of 2020 fighting fit and challenging for another podium finish. Despite a slightly disappointing result last time out, the Italian has moved up into fifth in the championship standings and will be looking to further close the gap to those ahead of him.

The Gran Premi de Catalunya will get underway for the PETRONAS Yamaha SRT riders on Friday with Free Practice 1 at 9.55am local time (3.55pm MYT). Sunday’s 24-lap race will get underway at 3pm local time (9pm MYT), one hour later than usual.

Fabio Quartararo

"It’s great to have another race weekend! Barcelona is a track that I love. One that I’m really looking forward to going to, because I feel that we can manage to get a really good result there. It’s true it has a one kilometre long straight, so we will have to work on a good setup for it. Last year our top speed wasn’t so good there, but we were still able to finish on the podium, so it means we are strong in the other parts of the track. Our pace there can be good, we know that we can be competitive and, of course, I will give my best!"

Franco Morbidelli

"I am happy to face the Catalan GP after the two races at Misano. I have stayed at home trying to relax and recover, to make sure I am 100% this weekend in Barcelona. There are a lot of positives from the Misano races to take with us to the race in Barcelona, where we will try to arrive well prepared and ready to attack. The Barcelona-Catalunya circuit is an historical track, with many MotoGP stories that have happened there. The layout is nice, flowy and challenging. In my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful tracks in the calendar and I usually do quite well there. So I am looking forward to ride there again."