For Quartararo, one thing is certain: this Yamaha result is down entirely to him

Only two riders were slower than former champion Fabio Quartararo in the MotoGP qualifying session in Malaysia. The Yamaha works rider knows that without the unusual conditions in the sprint, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Ivo Schützbach

MotoGP

31.10.2026 - 19:19

This article is an automatically generated English version. The Original Article was published in German.

Fabio Quartararo
© Gold and Goose Photography

Mentioned in this article

Fabio Quartararo

Topic of the week

Soon-to-be world champion Kimi Antonelli: The inevitable will then follow in Mexico

The 20-year-old Italian Kimi Antonelli had the chance to secure the 2026 World Championship title at the US Grand Prix. He did everything right: victory in Texas. The title celebrations have nevertheless been postponed. Until Mexico.

Mathias Brunner

Tomorrow

Sepang: International Livestream

MotoGP World Championship

01.11.2026 - 03:35

“He who dares nothing can hope for nothing.” There are no words more fitting than those of Friedrich Schiller to describe Yamaha’s current dire situation. After Aprilia riders Jorge Martin and Raul Fernandez withdrew due to injury, only 20 MotoGP riders remained at the Sepang Circuit. In qualifying, the Yamaha quartet of Jack Miller, Alex Rins, Fabio Quartararo and stand-in rider Augusto Fernandez (replacing the injured Toprak Razgatlioglu) secured 16th, 17th, 18th and 20th on the grid. Only Superbike World Championship runner-up Iker Lecuona, who is standing in for the recovering Fermin Aldeguer at Gresini and was riding the MotoGP Ducati at Sepang for the first time, found himself at the back of the grid in 19th place.

Quartararo’s efforts went unrewarded

Quartararo was, as so often in the past, the best of the Blues and crossed the finish line in eleventh place – a good 10 seconds behind winner Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM). As only the top nine finishers score points in the Sprint, the Frenchman’s efforts went unrewarded.

“Qualifying wasn’t good; I had no feeling for the bike,” said Fabio, summing up his 18th place on the grid in a single sentence. “When it started raining in the sprint, I pushed as hard as I could to catch the lads in front of me. I wasn’t far off Pecco (Bagnaia in 6th place – the author); under normal conditions, we’d have been much further apart. I enjoyed riding at the limit in the rain – our potential was very low. I’m hoping the conditions will be the same on Sunday. Of course, it’s easy to make mistakes then. But if you use the riders in front as a guide, you can push a bit harder. When it’s wet and we’re on wet tyres, our bike isn’t too bad. But if we’re on slicks and it’s only raining a bit, it still doesn’t work. Then it’s up to the rider to push to the limit, and I managed that quite well.”

Recommendations

MotoGP • New
From 5.00 am: Where to watch the MotoGP World Championship races in Malaysia live

MotoGP
Bagnaia (6th) benefited from the capricious tropical weather – and remains grumpy

MotoGP
Trackhouse rider Ogura on his duel with Marc Márquez: “It was a heated battle!”

Mentioned in this article

Fabio Quartararo

Quartararo: Rivals are fast, Yamaha has slowed down

The 2021 World Champion can barely put into words what the Yamaha is lacking – the list is that extensive. The bike suffers from severe front-wheel chattering, and according to Quartararo, the rear wheel slips. He summed this up in a small press briefing as a ‘lack of feel’. “The team says that grip on the track is much lower. But that’s a comparison with our data from last year. When I look at the other riders’ lap times, they’re very fast. We, on the other hand, are much slower.” For the 27-year-old, the most important thing in Sunday’s Grand Prix (starting at 8 am CET) is therefore “to finish in one piece”. He cannot afford to set his sights any higher at the moment.

Recommended

Mentioned in this article

TV Program

Quartararo’s efforts went unrewarded

Recommendations

Mentioned in this article

Quartararo: Rivals are fast, Yamaha has slowed down

TV Program

Seen already?

Results

Highlight Videos

Events

MotoGP News

Newest Articles

Speedweek.com – The best motorsport on the web

Reports

Editorial

Series