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Fabio Quartararo's face darkened on the final day of testing in Sepang. Despite the considerable progress made by Yamaha, big doubts have crept into the Frenchman's mind, worried about the problems encountered in the flying lap. "Mixed feelings" are those experienced by El Diablo at the end of the three days in Malaysia, which saw the World Champion in 17th place in the combined standings, with a time of 1'58"897 set on Saturday. Together with Oliveira, the only one in not being able to improve his benchmark, the Frenchman was left with a bitter taste in his mouth after putting on fresh tyres.
“I'm happy with the progress in top speed that I've been asking for for a long time, and with having different parts to test, which is another thing of the things we had asked for. But today the feeling wasn't the best. It was only good in some areas. The feeling wasn’t great. It was great in some areas, with old tyres I am feeling super happy, but when we put a new tyre it’s a nightmare. We have to figure out why with a new tyre we cannot make a step forward. And we know that is the most important thing right now – with these sprint races, qualifying. And right now we are not able to make any step in front - commented Fabio – Last year in qualifying here we struggled too, it’s not looking so good. So hopefully in Portimao we’ll find a solution.”
What is the problem that is afflicting the 23-year-old? This is precisely the question that Yamaha will have to find an answer for Portugal.
“This is the problem because, if I don’t look at the screen and I don’t see the lap time, I feel I’m riding in 1m58s-low. Then I look at the lap time and I’m on 1m59s-low. It’s like, what is happening? It’s not that I arrive to the box and I say, ‘I’m losing the front everywhere’ or, ‘I have no grip’. I don’t know what’s going on. And this is the biggest problem. It’s the biggest question mark - explained the Frenchman – I feel like every year we have been dropping so much in qualifying – 2019, my first year, I made a lot of pole positions. Then dropping, dropping… and now it’s impossible. And the worst thing is we don’t know why.”
Everything seemed to go quite well until the time attack, when the situation got worse.
"Obviously we have to improve a lot, but when I was lapping in a low 1'59" with used tires for around twenty laps I was quicker than my fastest lap in the race, so I can be happy, even if the conditions are completely different from those of the race weekend - underlined Quartararo - It wasn't bad, but as soon as we put on the new tires the feeling decreased and we have to understand why, because I feel that at the moment qualifying is 80% decisive, to fight for the win ”.
But the tires won't be the only issue that Yamaha will have to solve at Portimao. In Portugal, in fact, El Diablo will also have to make a decision on the fairing with diffusers, which today he was unable to compare with the normal one.
"Yesterday we tested them both, but we have to confirm it in Portimao, because we perhaps had a better speed in the slow corners, but I'm not sure - he explained - Today we focused a lot on the electronics and the engine".
