After a sensational pole position, Fabio Quartararo’s Australian MotoGP took a dip under mysterious circumstances as the monster Yamaha rider dropped to 11th in Sunday’s race.
The Frenchman blamed his choice of medium front tire for his struggles in the sprints and was confident he could get back into contention in the hard races of the Grand Prix.
Instead, Quartararo faded to the back for much of the race, becoming the slowest M1 rider.
“It was really weird. I didn’t expect a race like this because I knew my pace was good,” Quartararo said.
“The feeling during the warm-up (4th place on medium rear tire) was okay as the wind was strong the whole time, but I just didn’t have the pace on any lap of the race.
Australian MotoGP lap times: podium and Yamaha riders
“I don’t know what happened to feel such a big difference between the race and the previous sessions. I couldn’t stop the bike, I couldn’t get any speed.”
“We still need to make sure, but I never felt that way all weekend. Even in FP1, which was a medium rear, I felt competitive and fast. But today I didn’t feel good at all.
“We’ll try to figure it out, but at the same time we want to turn the page and prepare for the next round. I’m looking forward to next week. Sepang is my favorite course.”
Quartararo avoided directly blaming the tires, but team director Massimo Meregalli confirmed Yamaha would launch an investigation.
“Fabio did not have the feeling he needed today to run at his usual level. We will thoroughly investigate what caused the sudden change in the race compared to the rest of the weekend,” Meregalli said.
Alex Rins, 2025 Australian MotoGP
On the other side of the garage, teammate Alex Rins used the same hard front and medium rear tire combination to make a strong comeback from 12th to 7th to finish as Yamaha’s top rider.
“It was really amazing. I mean, it was amazing to be able to have this emotion,” Rins said. “I overtook a lot of times, including on the inside of corner two. It was a really great race. I had a small problem at the start, but I was able to solve it in corner two.”
“From then until the end I was trying to get by, trying to overtake. I was riding on the limit and I’m very happy and proud – seventh place is a great result.”
“We continue to make progress and that’s the most important thing.”