Fabio Quartararo goes faster than his pole time from last Saturday’s Q2 session. Franco Morbidelli rounds off an excellent test for the entire team at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto.
One day on from the Spanish GP, the PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team continued working at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto on Monday in a post-race official test. Riders Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli were again amongst the fastest men on track, with the former topping the timesheets with a 1:36.379 under the fastest lap record, and the latter in third with his 1:37.093 lap.
After misfortune on raceday at Jerez in the Spanish GP, Fabio Quartararo had a great test alongside his crew. The Frenchman focused his work on the front fork, setups and geometry of his Yamaha YZR-M1. After putting in extensive work with hard tyres, he used soft rubber for his last outing in search of a fast time. A three-lap stint of consecutive laps in the 1m 36s ended the day in positive style, with Quartararo going quicker than the official fastest lap record he set on Saturday of 1:36.880.
Franco Morbidelli also had a very productive day in southern Spain, finishing in third position with a time of 1:37.093. The Italian had the opportunity to try out new aerodynamic winglets for his bike, as well as doing exhaustive work to improve his feeling with the front end and increase rear grip.
The next challenge for PETRONAS Yamaha SRT will be the French Grand Prix, which will be held on May 17th-19th at the legendary Le Mans circuit.
#21 Franco Morbidelli
“We worked on a few very specific areas during this test, with the aim of improving the setup of the bike. We found some new solutions that I believe will be useful at upcoming rounds this season. During the race I never felt comfortable with the front end, and today we were able to improve that feeling. We also worked on rear grip, something that we lacked a little during the weekend. We have found solutions and this is important on days like today. We have pace and the feeling is pretty good now.”
#20 Fabio Quartararo
“All the frustration from yesterday was compensated for by the excellent day of testing we had today. We tried several different setups and a new front fork. The results were very positive, and it’s something that we will continue investigating in the future. We also managed to find a very good pace with used tyres and we worked with the hard compound for many laps.
At the end of the day we tried a time attack and it went very well. This was the first time that the grip has been so good at this track. On my last three laps I was on the limit and I saw that I could not improve much more, with us putting in three times in the 1m 36s. I am very happy with the work that we’ve done and I want to thank the whole team. I can’t wait to get to Le Mans, my home Grand Prix, and to carry on enjoying riding the bike.”
