Sandstorm Puts Early End to Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Qatar Test

12-03-2021

Sandstorm Puts Early End to Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Qatar Test

Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo were unable to continue their testing progress on Day 5 due to dust and wind on the Losail International Circuit. They did put in a few practice starts at the end of the day, but didn't improve on their personal best times set earlier in the Qatar MotoGP Official Test.

The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team were raring to get back to work and put in race simulations on Day 5 of the Qatar MotoGP Official Test, but the track conditions prohibited any testing action by Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo for most of the day.

The duo put in a few practice starts in the final hour of the session. However, neither were able to better their personal best laps of the Qatar test so far.

Viñales‘ 1'53.244s lap time that he set yesterday earned him second place in the combined Qatar Test timesheets, with a margin of 0.061s to first. Having already completed most of the evaluation programme, he is feeling confident for the start of the 2021 season.

Quartararo‘s 1‘53.263s lap from Day 3 puts him in third place in the combined Qatar Test results, 0.080s from the front. He too is keen on returning to the Losail International Circuit in two weeks‘ time for the Grand Prix of Qatar held from 26th-28th March.

Maverick Viñales

"After this test my feelings are very positive. We are calm. We understand the situation, we know which direction we need to follow, and we have been working very hard on being as fast as we can, especially at the beginning of the race. The behaviour of the bike is nice, it‘s handling well. This is important with a full fuel tank. Right now, we are on a good level. We got done what I wanted to accomplish during this test. I feel ready for the start of the season."

Fabio Quartararo

"Honestly, despite not being able to really ride today, I‘m feeling optimistic. I finished the test in a good way. I‘m really satisfied with my pace and I feel ready for the race. Of course, the conditions might be different then, but I feel happy so far. I wanted to ride today, just to go over some details. There was nothing important to try, but I wanted to do a race simulation. Still, I‘m happy with the job we have done so far, because we did everything that we needed to do."

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director

"It‘s a shame that we couldn‘t ride today due to the track conditions. There was a bit of a storm that blew a lot of dust onto the track, and that obviously made it too risky to head out. Luckily, we had already completed most of the evaluation process yesterday, so this missed day of testing – though not ideal – is not a huge concern to us. We will use the next two weeks to further analyse all the data that we collected over the four days of riding in Qatar. Let‘s start the 2021 season! "