Q2, the "only positive point" of Fabio Quartararo's day

He won't have to go through Q1. That, in short, is the only positive point. fabio quartararo manages to withdraw from the first day of the Valencia Grand Prix MotoGP, final round of the 2025 championship. The Nice native secured the last opportunity to go directly to Q2 on Saturday, after a session disrupted by a mechanical failure on his first machine.

"I had gasoline leaking out everywhere! The mechanics thought it was water, but given the smell, I knew it wasn't."he explained to the media present in Valencia, including AUTOhebdo.

With his first bike rendered unusable, the 2021 world champion had no choice but to complete his qualifying lap with his second machine, the one he usually uses less. And this was the bike on which Quartararo didn't have all the setup changes he'd made in the last two races, particularly in Portugal, where, after a difficult Friday, "El Diablo" had put his machine on the front row on Saturday.

“Q2 is the only positive thing today. I wasn't really satisfied because I'm really riding a bike I don't know. It's strange to say that because we have the same base, but we've made a lot of changes in the last two races. I don't feel very good, that's why we're going to try to find something for Saturday so we can at least push for a lap.”

The Frenchman explained that it was primarily the lack of feedback from his front wheel that hampered him on Friday: "We know that on our bike we really use the front end to set a fast lap time, and today I couldn't get into the first corner, the fourth, or the eighth. I couldn't brake late, but above all, I couldn't enter the corners quickly. I had a lot of trouble getting any feel for the front end, which is usually our strong point."

"I don't think we have potential."

Despite Jack Miller's presence in sixth position, the Nice native doesn't believe Yamaha currently has the ability to fight at the front. Setting a good lap time (or even two, as Miller set the fastest time in Free Practice 1) is one thing, putting them into a race is quite another…

"He finished sixth, we're a tenth of a second behind, and we find ourselves in tenth position. I don't think we have the potential. He managed to do a very good lap; the biggest difficulty will be to maintain that level of performance over time, over twelve laps, over fourteen laps..."

Yamaha's engineers can therefore expect a long evening on Friday, trying to find the answers Fabio Quartararo needs for Saturday. The Frenchman isn't convinced they can find something that will make a real difference at the Valencia circuit. "I think everyone believes they can find something by tomorrow! I think it's more complicated to find something; we've pretty much covered everything today, lots of changes. We'll see tomorrow."

Interview by Luca Bartolomeo, in Valencia (Spain).

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