Sixth MotoGP Front Row Start of 2020 For Quartararo

19-09-2020

Sixth MotoGP Front Row Start of 2020 For Quartararo

Third place start for PETRONAS Yamaha SRT’s Quartararo at Emilia Romagna GP, Morbidelli eighth

Fabio Quartararo will start tomorrow’s Emilia Romagna GP at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli from third on the grid, his sixth front row start of 2020. Team-mate Franco Morbidelli, who still isn’t 100% after picking up a stomach bug, will line up eighth.

Saving the soft rear tyre for his final run in FP3, Quartararo was comfortably through to Q2 with a 1min 31.359secs lap, finishing the session third. In the afternoon, it proved to be another tight qualifying session, with the top-11 separated by only half a second. Putting in a strong final lap, Fabio’s 1min 31.222secs lap secured him third on the grid for tomorrow’s race – his sixth front row start of the year.

Team-mate Morbidelli was at the sharp end throughout the third Free Practice session, ending it fourth with a 1min 31.429secs lap and joining Quartararo in Q2. Still not feeling 100% due to the stomach bug picked up earlier in the week, which saw the Italian unable to take part in the one-day test, Franco gave his all in Q2 and will start the Emilia Romagna GP eighth, setting a fastest lap of 1min 31.566secs.

Warm Up for the MotoGP pair will start 9.20am local time (3.20pm MYT) tomorrow, with lights going out on the 27-lap race at 2pm local time (8pm MYT).

Fabio Quartararo

'It was a tough qualifying and I didn’t feel that good on the bike. I was surprised with my lap because I made a mistake in Turn 14, but it was still good enough. I’m happy to be on the front row again, this was our main goal and also our pace is great. We tried many things in FP4 with the bike, so it was a little bit difficult for us, but we’ve shown that we have a good pace and I’m feeling strong. I think there are seven or eight riders who could fight for the victory tomorrow. It will be important to have a good start, which I have been working on this weekend to improve. I think it will be a fun race and hopefully we should be able to have a good result."

Franco Morbidelli

"Today was not too bad. I am feeling better than yesterday, but I am still not 100% so I had to manage this in today’s sessions. In qualifying I didn’t feel like I had the energy to be able to attack how I wanted, but I will try to rest some more to be as prepared as possible for the race. The pace doesn’t look too bad, but we do still need to decide which tyres we will use. I think tomorrow’s race will be more demanding compared to last Sunday. I have been sick all week, lost one day of testing and I don’t feel completely fit yet. The gap between a lot of riders is really tight so I think it will be a close race."