The championship leaders have repeatedly voiced their struggles with the Yamaha 2021 in wet conditions and on Friday at Misano there seemed little improvement after a soaked FP2.
Quartararo slipped from eighth place in the mostly dry FP1 to 18th in the completely wet FP2 and landed behind his new teammate Franco Morbidelli – who has been missing since June and had not driven the 2021 M1 before Friday – and more than two seconds behind the pace.
The Frenchman says that 18th place is “not real”, but admits that his current form is only enough for a top 12th place in the wet – while the next title rivals Francesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir finished second and fourth.
“No, I’ve already said that,” he replied when asked if his problems were on the track.
“I had this feeling, but if you looked at the data, the temperatures were right.
“We have to analyze, we found a setup and it was a bit better for the feeling.
“We are still two seconds away from the top man, but for me our position is not real now.
“For me, our positioning was in the top 12 right now.
“But in 2019 I did all my wet trainings in the top 10 and I can’t understand why I can’t have that feeling again.
“Let’s see what we can do and improve for the next wet session.”
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Quartararo added that he has a “zero feel” in Misano’s fast corners, although a new setup gives him a better feel than before in the wet this year.
“So we tried a completely different setting this afternoon,” he said.
“It was a little better. It’s a shame because I missed my last lap because I improved my lap time, but I didn’t even do one of my fastest sectors.
“So we have a bit of leeway and I think we’ve improved a bit.
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“It was a little better, but I still don’t feel comfortable on the bike.
“I feel like we’re taking a small step forward because my feeling is better, but I have zero feeling in the fast corners, so it’s tough.
“It’s tough, let’s see what we can do, but we are in a lot of problems right now.”