Quartararo is the best of the Sepang Test 2020

Roberto Magni By Foto ReD Photographic Agency - Quartararo is the best pilote of the Sepang Test 2020...
Fabio Quartararo 20 Team Yamaha Petronas has always been among the fastest drivers of the whole IRTA 2020 Test on the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

In the three days of Test he has always made record laps, Quartararo immediately found himself well with the new Yamaha M1 2020 MotoGP, from the speed he manages to do with this bike it seems that it was designed on him. Surely the French champion with Italian origins will make an excellent Motogp 2020 championship and will certainly be one of the protagonists in the fight for the 2020 world champion title.

Quartararo and Morbidelli Lead the Way on Opening Day at Sepang Test The Petronas Yamaha SRT pairing of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli end opening day first and second at Sepang International Circuit. The Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team pairing of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli ended the opening day of the Sepang Test first and second respectively. The first outing with the new livery was a positive one as the duo racked up the kilometres at the Sepang International Circuit, despite rain holding up proceedings in the afternoon. Taking to the track immediately at 10:00, Quartararo was quick to make his mark on the timing screens and soon placed his Yamaha YZR-M1 at the top of the standings. The afternoon downpour helped him spend the rest of the day there, finishing the session aboard his 2019 machine with a lap time that was 0.051 seconds faster than his competition. Fabio completed 52 laps of the Malaysian track, with a best time of 1min 58.945secs.

Team-mate Morbidelli focused on testing the latest evolution of the A-spec machine, which he last rode in November at the Jerez test. After spending the first hour getting up to speed with the new improvements, he soon joined Quartararo at the top of the timing screens, just 0.051 seconds behind. Despite the rain restricting track time, Morbidelli completed more laps during the afternoon and finished the day in second, 0.199 seconds faster than Alex Rins, having racked up 62 laps with a best time of 1min 58.996secs. Testing will resume tomorrow at Sepang International Circuit at 10:00 (local time), when Fabio will be able to ride the Factory-Spec YZR-M1 for the first time. The second day of action will draw to a close at 18:00 (local time), ahead of the final day on Sunday.

Fabio Quartararo It feels good after almost three months to be back on track. Today was just about getting used to being back on the MotoGP bike. We used last year“™s version just to get a few laps in, and we set a really good lap time with the medium tyre at the beginning of the day. We“™re hoping for better weather tomorrow so that we can work even more and I“™m looking forward to see what my first impressions of the new bike are. I“™m really happy with today, it“™s always good to start quickest but it“™s only the first day of the test - everybody starts with new bikes, it“™s not easy for them. The 2019 bike is one I really know from last year, but of course is always better to be P1 than P10 and I can“™t wait for tomorrow to start with the new bike.

Quartararo tops the timesheets on second day of Sepang test Another strong showing for Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, as PETRONAS Yamaha SRT enjoy a productive end to the second day of testing at the Sepang International Circuit. The second day of the Sepang MotoGPâ„¢ Official Test proved to be a productive one for PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, with riders Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli making the most of the good conditions - ending the day first and fifth respectively. Quartararo was able to jump aboard his brand new 2020 Factory-spec Yamaha YZR-M1 for the first time and spent the morning taking the time to acclimatise to the new machine. After a day of tweaking the set up and racking up the kilometres, Fabio set the fastest lap with less than an hour left on the clock. After completing 72 laps of the Malaysian track, Fabio“™s best time of 1min 58.572secs was 0.069secs faster than Jack Miller and only 0.269secs off the official All Time Lap Record of Sepang, set by Fabio last year.

Fabio Quartararo I am really positive because this is only our first day with the bike. We know that the Factory team tested on many occasions last season, but I“™m really happy with the work of the team because we made so many changes in so few laps. We did 72 laps, which is quite a lot, but I“™m so happy to already feel good on the bike. It is difficult to make a new bike really good in one day. We hope to make another step tomorrow. We had quite a lot of laps in the 1min 59secs on old tyres so that“™s really positive. We need to improve the pace a little bit because I am not feeling 100% comfortable. We know that with a new bike you have some positive points and some parts that you are struggling a bit, but at the moment I have already found the positives in one day. With the settings we will change tomorrow we hope to find even more positive points.

Fabio Quartararo Today was a difficult day for us, it was not easy to get into the pace and make a good lap this morning, but overall I“™m really happy. We did a long run of 12 laps in the hottest conditions when there was nobody on track. It was not bad: our pace was high 1min 59sec and low 2mins, it was 55 degrees on track and nobody else was riding so it was probably the worst track conditions we had today. We are working in a really good way to improve the speed and hopefully in Qatar we will take another step forward. My goal now has changed a little bit; we want to have better long run pace, because we now know over one lap we are fast. Overall, I“™m really happy with the first test of the year with the 2020 bike.