Quartararo ‘too careful’ in the wet, confidence with hard tyre ‘was not good’

MotoGP Championship leader Fabio Quartararo finished day-one of the Dutch MotoGP third, while team-mate Maverick Vinales was fastest. 

Quartararo was surprisingly off the pace compared to Vinales this morning - +0.561s was the gap, before reducing that margin to just over two tenths this afternoon. 

But with half the FP2 session left to run, heavy rain hit the cathedral of speed which meant lap times could not be improved upon. 

Quartararo joined most of the grid in testing out the new asphalt in wet conditions late on, but felt he was ‘too careful’, while confidence in the dry with a rear hard tyre was also ‘not that good’.  

"Quite a positive day, but in FP1 unfortunately, for the quantity of the tyres in the morning I need to go with the soft front, and it's a tyre that I usually don't really like,” added Quartararo. 

"So this morning we used only soft in the front. The medium rear was OK but I wasn't able to push the front, so I was quite happy. This afternoon, I have been with medium-hard and it was raining a little bit. My confidence with the hard was not that good. 

"And then with the wet I was too careful. The feeling was not bad, but I was way too careful and we know that for tomorrow we need to make a step."

Following the opening day of action, there seems to be split opinion within the Yamaha camp regarding the grip and bumps, as Valentino Rossi said both had been significantly improved, however, Quartararo feels not much has changed regarding the bumps and that they are ‘still there, maybe even more’. 

Quartararo said: "The grip, looking at the lap times, looks like the grip is a little bit better. But for me, the bumps are still there, and maybe even more. 

"So considering the bumps I'm not so convinced that it's better. Better, for sure not, let's say the bike is still moving a lot. But the grip is quite good. So great balance."

The factory Yamaha rider alluded to where the worst spot on the circuit is for those bumps, by saying: "Maybe not worse, but exactly the same. Going to Turn 6 is the same. 

"Before turn 12 there are not many, but going into Turn 6 is one of the corners you don't want to have bumps. So I feel like it's quite dangerous there."