**”Yamaha Struggles as Rins and Quartararo Grapple with Low Grip at Aragon”**

Challenging Day for Yamaha as Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo Face Difficulties at Aragon

Yamaha was concerned that the newly resurfaced Aragon track would offer such high grip that it would compromise tyre durability, but "we found the situation to be quite the reverse."

During Friday's practice session at the Aragon MotoGP, Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo were frustrated by Yamaha's persistent grip issues and the challenge of utilizing new tires effectively during a time attack.

Although every rider faced difficulties with traction on the fresh Aragon track surface, these two were particularly affected.

Even with new components, such as aerodynamic adjustments from the latest Misano test, Rins and Quartararo ended up in 19th and 20th place on the timing charts.

Similar to what happened in Austria, they were defeated by the top-performing Hondas once more.

Monster Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli remarked that their initial day at the Aragon track was hectic but ultimately fruitless.

"We initially expected the new tarmac to offer better grip, to the point where we worried it might reduce tyre longevity, but today we found out the opposite is true."

"This negatively impacted our performance. We'll use all the time we have before the next session to analyze the data we gathered today and prepare for FP2 and the qualifying rounds."

"Despite the lack of traction today, Fabio experienced a fall at Turn 6; fortunately, there were no major repercussions."

Due to inadequate edge grip, Quartararo couldn't tilt his bike as much as he had in past years. He started the weekend in 18th place during FP1 but managed to enter the top ten briefly in the afternoon session.

The accident compelled him to immediately switch to a different backup bike and enter time-attack mode, resulting in him trailing Marc Marquez, the quickest rider, by 1.6 seconds.

"This day, particularly the morning, was really challenging for us," stated the French individual.

“I had an accident in the afternoon, so I was forced to use a different bike that wasn't intended for use due to its different specifications.

"I needed to adjust to it rather swiftly. However, the overall experience wasn't very positive today."

Rins was a mere 0.001 seconds quicker than Quartararo on his M1.

"The traction was minimal, making the day particularly challenging," remarked the Spaniard, who previously secured a victory at the Aragon MotoGP riding for Suzuki.

"Today, we put in our best effort as usual, but it seems we're not as close to the leading competitors as we have been at other circuits."

"Certainly, the limited traction on this track is a challenge for us. We'll see if we can make progress tomorrow."

The positive update for the Yamaha pair is that the track conditions are likely to get much better as the weekend progresses.

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