Today, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo continued the excellent feeling in Austin, Texas. Last year on Day 1 of the 2022 Grand Prix of The Americas. Franco Morbidelli used the Friday free practise sessions to work on his base set-up. In the combined free practice timesheets, they took 3rd and 21st place, respectively.
Today the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team kicked off proceedings at the Grand Prix of The Americas event with mixed results. Whilst Fabio Quartararo secured a temporary top-3 position in the combined free practice standings. Franco Morbidelli is still looking for a set-up to his liking, ending the day in 21st place.
Quartararo had a solid start for the Texas round and was soon featured inside the top 5. In perfect riding conditions. The Yamaha man focused on tweaking his bike’s set-up from last year’s race in October to suit the current state of the track. He ended FP1 in fourth place, 0.443s from first, thanks to his 2’04.450s best time.
Having established the resurfaced COTA track has good grip. The Frenchman went straight to work in the hotter afternoon session to prepare for Sunday’s race.
He systematically found and crossed off points of improvement before putting his crew and his work to the test at the end of the session. He clocked a 2’02.837s on his last lap.Earning him third place in the FP2 and combined results, 0.295s off today’s top position.
Morbidelli was greatly looking forward to riding in Austin. But his first day of experiencing the tricky Texan track fully fit didn’t go as smoothly as he would have liked. He tried various race set-ups in FP1 but didn’t find the right feeling. His 2’05.287s best lap put him in 17th place, 1.280s from the top.
The Italian and his crew used the afternoon session to find a solid base setting. Not able to complete a time attack at the end due to yellow flags. He wrapped up the first day of the Americas GP weekend with the best time of 2’04.664s which put him in 21st place in the FP2 and the combined free practice results, 2.122s from first.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
TEAM DIRECTOR
First of all, we were positively surprised about the condition of the track. Most of the bumps that last year created many difficulties were smoothed out.
We had a mixed day, with one rider feeling quite good with the bike in general, while the other is still trying to find a set-up that suits him. Fabio had a good pace and made some changes during these two practice sessions that bore fruit.
When the time came to do a flying lap, he delivered. We tried different set-ups with Franky today, but that cost us quite a bit of track time, and unfortunately, when he tried to make a time attack, he got yellow flags.
FABIO QUARTARARO
It’s great to be in the top 3. We still need to improve our pace, but our goal was to finish inside the top 5, and we achieved it. We may have a margin in Sector 2 and the last sector. I feel pretty good, and I think that it will be great when I’ve done more laps on the soft. The new asphalt is a different story compared to last year.
Last time we missed the pleasure to ride, but this year we can send the bike into corners 2, 3, and 10. We can go fast. It’s like. Finally, we are back at COTA for real.
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
We are trying different things to get better, but today our pace was not that good. We need to improve. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make a time attack because I got yellow flags. We are pretty far behind, but we will try to improve for tomorrow.
via Monster Energy Yamaha
