Yamaha Halts Day Two Sepang Test Running

MotoGP, Sportrik Media - Yamaha kept all of its remaining riders in the pits during the opening hours of day two at the official Sepang MotoGP Test while investigating a technical issue that emerged during Tuesday’s running, prompting a temporary pause to its testing programme.

Five Yamaha riders were scheduled to test the manufacturer’s new V4 machine on day two following the withdrawal of Fabio Quartararo, who sustained a finger injury in a fast lowside crash at Turn 5 on Tuesday. However, none of Yamaha’s riders had taken to the track during the first two hours of the session as the team continued checks inside the garage.

The team is still investigating the technical issue from yesterday.
As a precaution, and until all checks are completed, the test is temporarily on hold.
We expect to resume as soon as possible.

The technical issue was confirmed not to be related to Quartararo’s accident, which left the French rider with a broken finger and ruled him out of days two and three of the Sepang test. Despite the injury, Quartararo ended Tuesday as Yamaha’s fastest rider aboard the factory’s new V4 prototype.

When asked directly whether an engine failure had occurred on day one, amid reports of smoke being seen from the bike, Quartararo stated that the issue he was aware of was electronic in nature rather than mechanical.

No, we had an issue with electronics.
It happened also at the end of the afternoon.
As far as I know, it was not the engine, but we only did a few laps.

However, subsequent evaluations suggest the problem may indeed be engine-related, prompting Yamaha to halt all track activity until a full technical assessment is completed, with uncertainty remaining over how much of the remaining test programme can be recovered.

Quartararo also explained the joint decision with Yamaha to stop riding and return to Europe for medical checks on his injured finger, citing the volume of work already completed during the shakedown and early testing phase.

We already tested everything that we needed to test.
Of course, two more days would have been great for electronics and mapping, but I think we did more than enough.

With Yamaha, we decided to stop because we already tested a lot during the Shakedown.
We split many items between the four race riders, so we decided to stop and try to be at 100 percent for Buriram.

On day two, Alex Rins was due to ride alongside Pramac Racing riders Jack Miller and Toprak Razgatlioglu, as well as Yamaha test riders Augusto Fernandez and Andrea Dovizioso, subject to the outcome of the ongoing investigation.

Paragraf penutup
Yamaha’s cautious approach underlines the priority placed on reliability validation of its new V4 project during the pre-season. The timing of its return to the track will be critical as attention begins to shift toward the Buriram test and preparations for the opening round of the 2026 MotoGP season.