Valentino Rossi wasn’t the only Yamaha rider battling for rear tire grip during MotoGP in Qatar on Sunday.
The Italian factory team’s substitute Fabio Quartararo said he had problems similar to the # 46.
“I had a bit of problems like Valentino. He had the same thing as me. So it’s a pretty strange situation,” said Quartararo.
The Frenchman had led the fight to the fast-starting Ducatis in the early laps, but had later dropped to fifth in a race won by team-mate Maverick Vinales.
“I felt so strong from the start and as soon as I passed Jack I was able to catch Johann so quickly,” said Quartararo. “But I felt a big drop on the rear tire that we didn’t expect because I never had a drop on the rear tire in testing or practice.
“When Maverick passed me, he was in a different league. He had a lot more grip than us.”
On the subject of matching items
Quartararo insisted he drove as calmly as possible to save the tire.
“To be honest, even when I passed Jack, my driving was smooth,” he explained. “I didn’t burn the tire like hell trying to overtake. I felt great, had great cornering speed and only the tire made a lot of waste. So I don’t understand.”
“Even when Maverick passed me I had problems but I saw that he was pushing quite a bit with the tire and everything. I said, ‘Okay, maybe he’ll have a drop a little later.’ But each time we had more and more falls.
On the subject of matching items
“Fortunately, I had a great feeling at the front and was able to set the lap time in a different way.”
“Now I wonder to see myself [on the data] the way Maverick did the first lap when he was smoother than us or something. I felt like I was driving so calmly at the beginning and unfortunately I had this drop.
“But I feel lucky because while the mistake we made last year when we weren’t feeling great was making P14 or crashing, we are now going back to P5, so these are great points for the overall standings on a tough day like this. “
“P5 and three seconds from Maverick. It’s not that bad.”
Quartararo will return to the Losail route on Friday for the start of this weekend’s Doha Round.
Ducati’s Jack Miller was another front runner who struggled with a sharp drop in tire grip and dropped to ninth place.