Fabio Quartararo Focused on Closing Yamaha Gap in Catalunya

Fabio Quartararo believes the progress of Yamaha’s V4 MotoGP project should not be judged purely by finishing positions, but by how close the bike is to the race winners. The French rider is now hoping the positive momentum from Le Mans can continue into this weekend’s 2026 Catalan MotoGP.

Quartararo delivered one of his strongest performances in recent seasons during his home French Grand Prix after switching back to Yamaha’s previous front wing specification. He qualified sixth before finishing fifth in the Sprint Race and sixth in the main grand prix.

The result marked Yamaha’s best MotoGP weekend yet with the V4 machine and comfortably surpassed the project’s previous best grand prix finish of 14th place.

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According to Quartararo, the biggest improvement came not from new parts, but from a much stronger feeling with the bike while riding close to the performance limit.

“In Jerez I was really far from my best lap time from 2025. At Le Mans I was only four tenths behind. It was still four tenths, but we can be happy because I can now feel the limit of the bike much better,” Quartararo explained.

The 2021 MotoGP world champion added that Yamaha has spent much of the 2026 season working on electronics in order to give him greater direct control over the bike’s behaviour.

Despite the progress, Quartararo admitted Yamaha still has several major weaknesses, particularly in acceleration and rear grip when exiting corners compared to rivals such as Ducati and Aprilia.

“We still need to find more power, especially from third to sixth gear, and we also need more grip. There are still many areas that need improvement,” he said.

Quartararo also stressed that race time deficit is now far more important to him than simply analysing finishing positions.

“For me, the position is just a number. In Jerez after 26 laps we finished 29 seconds behind Alex Marquez. At Le Mans we finished only seven seconds behind Jorge Martin. That’s what I’m really looking at,” he stated.

The encouraging Le Mans performance has increased Quartararo’s confidence heading into Catalunya, one of his most successful circuits during his grand prix career. The French rider previously won MotoGP races in Barcelona in both 2020 and 2022.

Quartararo also hopes the set-up direction Yamaha discovered during the Jerez test can continue to work effectively on Catalunya’s layout, which places heavy demands on front-end stability and tyre management.

“I was really pleased with the feeling on the bike during Saturday and Sunday at Le Mans. Montmelo is a track I really enjoy and this weekend will be a good test to understand whether the set-up we found during the Jerez test also works well here,” Quartararo said.