"A good day" for Fabio Quartararo, fastest driver in Sepang tests

The day ended with an image that we had lost the habit of seeing: Fabio Quartararo at the top of the timesheet of a MotoGP session. The Frenchman, visibly happy with his day, remains moderate on the value of this time.

Published 05/02/2025 à 17:05

Cyprien Juilhard

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"A good day" for Fabio Quartararo, fastest driver in Sepang tests

@DPPI

For the moment, the lights are green at Yamaha and the Japanese team's Malaysian week is going wonderfully. After the presentation of the M1s of the factory team and Pramac, the riders went to Sepang last weekend for the Shakedown, the first test of the year reserved for the three rookies on the grid and Honda and Yamaha as part of the concessions.

Faced with this plateau devoid of its usual big names, fabio quartararo set the fastest time on the final day on Sunday, in order to gain confidence for the pre-season tests which began on Wednesday. This time, the grid is full in Malaysia and this first day has caused some damage. Jorge Martin (Aprilia), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) fell heavily and will not participate in the rest of the test on Thursday and Friday.

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Fabio Quartararo managed to stay on his two wheels and even set the best time. With a time of 1'57”555, the 2021 world champion beat Marc Marquez, the new official Ducati rider, by 0”051. “I think it was good to have already ridden two days here during the Shakedown and then have two days off, it was very helpful for us.” assures the Niçois at the end of his day. “We didn’t really focus on the time trial, so to be slightly quicker today than we were in qualifying at Sepang last year is positive. I felt pretty good. We tried a lot of things and put a new tyre on at the end just to get a good lap time.”

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Quartararo remains measured on Yamaha's progress

Although Fabio Quartararo assures that Yamaha did not focus on the time, he still managed to beat the time he had achieved last November during Q2 of the Malaysian GP. The Frenchman, then author of a 1'57”592, improved his mark by 0”037. Beyond the purely honorary place of first at the end of the day, the 54 laps completed by " The Devil » allowed Yamaha to store information on the behavior of its machine.

"Today we tested a lot of electronics, which we had already tried during the Shakedown in order to confirm what we thought. It was a good day, especially for the engineers so that they understand in which direction we have to turn." analyses Quartararo, who insists on the need to be measured when it comes to your time.

“I don’t want to be too positive right away. We are working in the right direction, but it is only the first day of the test. We will have to see over the days how the other teams evolve, some are already very fast. We have to stay neutral, try to do our job well and we will see where we are in Thailand for the first race of the season.” Even though the track conditions are not comparable, it should be noted that the reference time set by Fabio Quartararo is 1”202 off the time set by Pecco Bagnaia last year to take pole at Sepang. The Frenchman's teammate, Alex Rins, completed 41 laps and finished 14th (+1”097), while Pramac riders Jack Miller (8th) and Miguel Oliveira (10th) flank Johann Zarco (9th) at the back of the top 10. Yamaha could also count on the support of its test rider, Augusto Fernandez, who completed 49 laps on Wednesday.

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