Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha blast "disastrous", "day to forget" Austrian MotoGP

Yamaha suffered another difficult weekend at the Austrian MotoGP, finishing outside the points with both riders.

Fabio Quartararo in particular looked quite competitive for Yamaha in FP2, which he finished in fifth place. Clearly, his pace on used tyres was acceptable.

However, on new tyres, Yamaha was unable to exploit the additional grip, and both Quartararo and Alex Rins struggled in both qualifying and the early stages of both races.

For Quartararo, the Grand Prix was made even worse by a long lap penalty, but in general he was disappointed with Yamaha’s weekend in Austria.

“It was clearly a bit of a disastrous weekend for us,” he said. “We expected more, especially from the race today. We finished too far from the top guys, so we have to work hard, because we need it to change for the future."

Alex Rins had struggled with rear lifting all weekend, and could only manage 16th in the race.

“It was a really, really tough race,” Rins said. “It was so hard to finish the Race. First of all, because of the warm conditions, and second because I was struggling a bit with the bike.

“Less than yesterday, because we made a small improvement with the setup, but it was still difficult to keep the rear tyre on the tarmac. When the rear lifts, we need to manage with the front brakes, so we experience some locking.”

There was at least some positivity for Rins, who completed his first race after missing out since his Dutch TT high-side. “But I‘m so proud of myself,” he said. “I demonstrated that I can overcome difficult moments with work and consistency. So, I‘m looking forward to the private test in Misano. I‘m ready to work.”

For Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team manager Maio Meregalli there was less room for such positivity.

“It was a race day to forget,” he said. “It's been a mirror image of yesterday's Sprint race. We didn't expect such a difficult weekend. Álex did a good job in today's heat, especially considering his condition.

“Fabio had a good start but was not able to defend his position, and the long-lap penalty ended his chances to fight for points. Other than that, there's not much to say.

“We need to really understand what is causing this poor performance. We have the Aragon GP coming up in two weeks' time, but first we have a private Misano test next week.

“We are going to evaluate different components and, if the results are good, we are aiming to bring the parts straight to Aragon."