On the first day of free MotoGP in Sepang Fabio Quartararo is in the top ten, Pecco Bagnaia is temporarily out.
Fabio Quartararo will have to play every chance this weekend in Malaysia. On Friday of free practice he starts with a slight advantage placing himself in the top ten, against a Pecco Bagnaia who had to settle for eleventh place and must hope for a dry FP3 to attempt direct access to Q2. On paper, Ducati remains the favorite, but in MotoGP everything is possible and the “zeros” can affect the outcome of the World Championship.
Since the beginning of the championship, no great technical news has arrived for the French Yamaha champion. Except for a new swingarm and aero package that Fabio Quartararo he failed. Furthermore, the evolution of the M1 has been slowed down by the lack of comparisons between the riders of the brand: Andrea Dovizioso has never been competitive with this bike, Darryn Binder is just a rookie from Moto3, Franco Morbidelli from 2021 struggles to find the feeling. In these conditions Fabio is the only reference for himself and his team.
Fabio Quartararo in the final sprint
Lin Jarvis, Yamaha boss, keeps hopes alive. From the height of his experience of him he knows that until mathematics gives a definitive condemnation, everything can still change. “The fight for the title is not yet decided. Anything can happen before Bagnaia wins the World Cup – the British manager told Speedweek.com -. But we need luck and we haven’t had any lately“. It’s not just a matter of good luck, Ducati must be given credit for what it has done in recent months, both in the winter break and during the current MotoGP season. “Ducati has clearly improved after the first part of the season“.
From Assen to Phillip Island there have been eight races in favor of Pecco Bagnaia, with four wins and three podiums. Lin Jarvis admits that the Yamaha M1 it is certainly not the best bike on the grid: “We have the bike with the weakest engine on the grid. Actually the M1 has other strengths, but this makes the riders’ job even more difficult… We made too many mistakes in Yamaha. Some of these were due to the driver, others to the team, others are simply related to bad luck“.
The Aprilia RS-GP of Aleix Espargarò does not seem to cause too many problems, all attention is focused on Pecco Bagnaia and the rain in Sepang could be a factor in Fabio Quartararo’s favor. “Many circumstances have contributed to reducing Fabio’s advantage“, Which after the Sachsenring amounted to 91 points. “But as I said, it’s not over yet“.
