Fabio Quartararo P2, but ‘all Yamaha riders struggling'

Fabio Quartararo has put himself in with a perfect opportunity of securing a fourth MotoGP win in 2021, after qualifying second for tomorrow’s German GP. 

Quartararo looked odds-on for pole after the initial Q2 runs, before improving his lap time even further. 

However, the Yamaha rider’s top championship contender Johann Zarco pipped him to pole by the slender margin of 11 thousands of a second.  

Quartararo was far and away the top Yamaha - has been all weekend,  with Valentino Rossi, Franco Morbidelli and team-mate Maverick Vinales all way down the order in 16th, 18th and 21st.

Even so, Quartararo wasn’t too pleased and called it a ‘really tough’ day, as ‘all the Yamaha is struggling’. 

"Yeah, it was really tough. I was not feeling so good today and all the weekend we are struggling a little bit," added the 22 year-old. 

"We saw that all the Yamaha (riders) is struggling a little bit, but I managed to get quite a good lap. 

"My first lap on the second run I had many people there (in front), but I managed to get a good second lap. I gave my 100% and that’s the best thing I could do. We will try to make the best start possible and we have a good pace."

Regarding Sunday’s 30 lap race, it looks as though Marc Marquez, Miguel Oliveira and Jack Miller have slightly better pace than Quartararo, who used FP4 to work extensively on old tyres, something he believes can be improved upon.  

Quartararo said: "In the afternoon we decided to make the FP4 like non-stop and it was pretty interesting to see how the tyre reacts. It was totally different to when you stop and come back, and yeah, it was interesting. 

"I think we have something to improve for the last laps, but qualifying was great. 

"I expected to have a little better feeling on the front, on the turning, but I managed to get the Yamaha on the front row which was a great result for us today."