A challenging campaign took another frustrating turn for Fabio Quartararo after a difficult opening day at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. The 2021 MotoGP world champion was forced to settle for a lowly 19th position in Friday's practice session, leaving him searching for answers as the premier class field left him trailing behind.
Handling issues and persistent grip struggles turned the high-speed 5.4km layout into a punishing test for the Yamaha rider. Television cameras captured the Frenchman visibly agitated, almost striking his fuel tank in anger as he returned to the pit lane following a session marked by multiple excursions running wide off the racing line.
Quartararo ultimately finished the day 1.6 seconds off the outright pace, beating only stand-in rider Augusto Fernandez and the injured Jorge Martin in a 21-bike field. The gap to his factory teammate Alex Rins, who managed 14th place as Yamaha's top representative, stood at half a second.
Assessing his difficult outing at Sepang, where the track surface has faced heavy criticism, Quartararo admitted his confusion over the lack of performance. “Looking at the lap time, almost everybody went faster than last year in the practice. So, I don't think it's much worse,” he told Motorsport.com.
“I felt completely worse. I don't know if it's a setting or something that was tough, but I didn't feel great at all,” he added regarding his severe lack of comfort aboard the motorcycle.
Asked about his visible anger on the bike, Quartararo pointed to an overall disheartening atmosphere in the garage. When pressed on whether the frustration stemmed from top-end speed deficits or mechanical gremlins, he explained, “A bit of everything. I felt really, really bad today. I could not push in any way to be fast and try to perform.”
“That is something that I tried to improve during the practice, during this morning. But it has been a long time that I was not struggling that much on this track,” he concluded, starkly contrasting with his strong fourth-row qualification and dual fifth-place finishes at the same venue a year prior.
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