The Qatar MotoGP Test is currently underway and after two days of testing, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) remains at the top of the timesheets despite saying that he is still not ‘ready to race’. Still getting with grips with the 2020 Yamaha YZR-M1 ‘factory-spec’ machine, the young Frenchman continues to impress and improve his riding skills against the rest of the field.
His teammate, Franco Morbidelli, also experienced significant improvements with his ‘A-spec’ Yamaha M1 with the fourth-fastest time of the day. Both Quartararo and Morbidelli took the opportunity to clock in as many laps as possible to get used to riding in significantly riding conditions at the Losail International Circuit.
According to Fabio Quartararo, “Today has been a really positive test. We worked on the pace and, like yesterday, we just tested some different electronic settings, engine braking and of course we tried some settings on the bike – on the front and rear. I’m really happy because at the end of the day it was a better day than yesterday.”
“I felt better on the bike and we still have one more day, so I hope to improve but overall today was a really positive day. We still need to understand some more things on the bike because at the moment we have only done three days in Sepang, two days here so far. Tomorrow I can still learn many things from the bike, and we will be ready to race,” added the Frenchman.
As for Franco Morbidelli, “Today we’ve been quite fast and we were able to have a good pace with the medium tyre, but we also tested both the hard and soft tyres. The medium and soft are very similar in performance so it’s going to be important to make the right choice on race day. Later in the night, it was quite humid and more difficult to make a decent lap but overall today I felt a bit better, a bit more comfortable with the bike, a bit more consistent. We’ve been working this afternoon on my speed and it looked good but, in the race, we will have to see. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I feel ready to go racing in two weeks.”
The final day of the Qatar MotoGP Test will commence soon where teams will need to get everything ready in time for the first opening MotoGP round of the 2020 season at the same venue in two weeks’ time. Stay tuned to Bikes Republic for more updates.
