Quartararo Tops British GP Day 1
Quartararo Tops British GP Day 1
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli got into action at the Silverstone Circuit today. The duo ended the first day of the Monster Energy British Grand Prix in 1st and 20th place respectively in the combined free practice results.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team kicked off the Monster Energy British Grand Prix today eager to get back into the game. Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli ended the first day of riding in 1st and 20th place respectively.
Quartararo lost a bit of time due to a small technical issue ten minutes after the start of FP1. Luckily, he was able to bring the bike back to the garage quickly and resumed the first session of the second half with 26 minutes remaining. The Championship Leader was soon making progress, entering the top 3, but ultimately ended the morning session in fourth place, 0.545s from first.
The pace was hot at the start of FP2. The Frenchman, however, wanted to focus on race set-up first. He also made sure to get plenty of long-lap penalty practice runs in to make up for lost time in the morning. Notwithstanding this extra work and effort, he still was the only rider to post a lap under the 1‘59-mark. Clocking a 1‘58.946s, El Diablo ended the day at the top of the FP2 and combined FP results with a 0.154s margin over his closest rival.
Morbidelli used the 45 minutes of FP1 to get back into the swing of things. Though he knows the Silverstone Circuit well, he had not ridden at the beloved track in the previous two years (in 2020 due to the global pandemic, and in 2021 due to a knee injury). Steady progress was key. His 2‘01.775s best time, set on lap 10/17, earned him 21st place, 1.882s from first.
The Italian continued his work throughout most of the afternoon track time, to push in the final stages of the session. As the usual mini time attacks started, he too got some hot laps in. Morbido improved his time to a 2‘00.138s on lap 15/17, which briefly put him in twelfth position. In the end it secured him 20th position in the FP2 and combined free practice results, 1.192s from the top.
Fabio Quartararo
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
"It was good. This morning I was struggling a lot on the brakes. I didn't remember how hard these types of bikes brake. It was difficult on the first five laps, but then I started to enjoy it a lot. It was great to have that feeling on the bike. I feel good on this track, so I'm confident. My goal is to be on the front row, but we saw how tight the top 10 is today. The first row is my main goal, but if not, we'll go for second row. I will be fighting for the victory. Looking at the pace, the long-lap penalty will make our life a bit more difficult, but I'm confident. We have to fight for a great race result here."
Franco Morbidelli
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
"Also today was tough. I'm missing one second. We need to keep grinding, to keep pushing to take out this one second somewhere. For sure braking is one of the main points, but when I improve in braking, I get worse in other areas. So, I need to shave off this one second somewhere, somehow. I'll keep working, keep pushing, keep grinding to do it."
Massimo Meregalli
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, Team Director
"First of all, I want to say that it‘s really good to be back after the longest summer break ever in MotoGP. Most of the riders needed a few laps to get back into the rhythm, and the cooler temperatures and wind were not making it any easier. But despite that, we are quite satisfied about where we ended up on this first day. We had a minor issue with Fabio‘s bike in FP1. That cost him some time, but he was able to recover it. In both sessions, he showed a really good rhythm and also really good speed.
"Franky returns to Silverstone for the first time since 2019. He‘s not at the level he wants to be yet, so we will keep working closely together with him to see if we can find a setting solution to help him."
