Rear Grip Challenges: Yamaha’s Struggle at Japan MotoGP as Quartararo Reflects on Motegi Sprint

Yamaha's Performance in Japan MotoGP Hinges on Rear Grip, Says Quartararo

Fabio Quartararo shares thoughts on challenging Motegi sprint race for Yamaha

Fabio Quartararo believes that the improvements Yamaha can achieve for Sunday's MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix will focus on enhancing grip rather than adjusting the set-up.

Following impressive performances in the last three MotoGP events, Yamaha faced more challenges during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

The Motegi track's stop-and-start design is challenging for the M1, which struggles with both power and rear grip during acceleration. Quartararo managed to advance past Q1, but only secured the 12th spot in qualifying and ended up finishing in that same position in the sprint race.

As a leading figure among the Japanese manufacturers, Quartararo found himself trailing by 14.645 seconds from the front and thinks that the slippery track conditions during the sprint race affected his performance.

"The sprint proved to be challenging," he remarked.

"The state of the track impacts our performance. When there's good traction, we perform well, but when traction is lacking, we fall behind the leaders."

"There was a light rain, and such weather presents challenges for us."

"We need to learn from this situation and identify any areas where we can make enhancements."

"It's not about the configuration; it's really about the grip at the back."

Alex Rins' team made significant adjustments to the setup for the sprint, as they hadn't seen much progress between Friday's practice sessions and the qualifying rounds.

Although Rins noticed some progress, he finished the sprint in 16th place, trailing Quartararo by nearly 10 seconds.

The rider mentioned that they made significant alterations to the bike, opting for a different setup between the qualifying session and the sprint race. This was because the adjustments made from Friday afternoon to the second free practice on Saturday morning were minimal, and he couldn't notice any enhancement in performance.

"We decided to take a chance and try a more daring approach for the sprint race, and it paid off as we discovered something new."

"We're still quite a distance from leading, but the engineers are examining the data since there was a slight improvement in how the rear interacted with the track."

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