Franco Morbidelli may well be the champion of positivity at Yamaha, but he was forced to realize that there was still a problem at the end of qualifying for this Qatar Grand Prix. However, Losail is a track that the M1 has dominated ten times in its history. But this Saturday, Iwata's troops suffered the worst qualifying session ever experienced in recent years near Doha. And that obviously raises questions.
First of all, there's this Q2 top speed chart which speaks for itself. We may say, at Yamaha , that the V-max (a model from the brand by the way) does not do everything. All the same, there are values and gaps that are of concern.
Then, Losail 2022 is the worst qualification of Yamaha in recent years of the World Championship, on the Qatari track. It wasn't easy to do better than last year with a bike that has remained essentially the same and has not evolved in terms of engine. The results are tough: fourth row for the two Monster Energy Quarterly et Morbidely, lines 7 and 8 for Dovizioso et Darryn Binder.
The 1'53″6 marked by Quarterly only worth P11 on the grid more than 6 tenths from the poleman Jorge Martin, While Morbidely loses almost 1″ on the Spaniard and a little more than 3 tenths on his teammate, all with dry track conditions, air temperature of 21° and track at 24°. Last year Fabio with 1'53″038 was second behind bagnaia, Maverick Viñales third in 1'53″088, Red fourth in 1'53″1 while Morbidely was 7th in 1'53″3, with conditions similar to this year. The following week at the Doha Grand Prix, Maverick Vinales closed the first row (1'53″267), Quarterly set the fifth time (1'53″469) while Morbidely was tenth (1’53″794).
Franco Morbidelli: “c’est encore un signal d’alarme, un feu rouge”
This time, Franco Morbidelli finished last in Q2, nine tenths off the best time. So it wasn't really a memorable qualifying for him and the factory team, never in the fight for the front rows. “ Starting position is always important, but if I ever have to decide to be wrong about this, I'll choose this one "philosophizes the 2 Moto2018 world champion. " Tires are a problem, they deteriorate a lot » adds the Italian-Brazilian who, however, bounces back by pointing out: “ The pace isn't that bad though. We can try to improve in the warm up, take another step and win something else, then we'll see in the race ».
Precisely, this race… “ I think I'm the slowest of the fastest » replies the 2020 world vice-champion. « I don't know where I may end up, anything can happen ". Was there a problem during qualifying? “ It's early to say, but it's still a wake-up call. Also seeing the last races of last year… I would say a red light. " He finishes : “the starting position is not good at all, but I am confident for the race. But we need something more. So far it's just interesting. We tried to do our best, and we were close to our maximum, but there are still areas we can work on to give our 110% ».
MotoGP Qatar J2: Qualifying
Credit classification motogp.com
