Quartararo: "I don’t want to dwell on Qatar"

Reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Fabio Quartararo and his Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™ team cut frustrated figures a couple of weeks ago at the Grand Prix of Qatar, after the Frenchman began his title defence with a disappointing P9.

However, coming into the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia, Quartararo wants to forget about the struggles that took place in Qatar. Yamaha’s lack of top speed gain – that saw all for YZR-M1s sit at the bottom of the speed trap timesheets at Lusail – shouldn’t be too much of a factor at the Pertamina Mandalika Circuit. It’s a worry that Quartararo and his fellow Yamaha riders need to ride around in 2022, and that’s why coming into this weekend’s action, El Diablo is “focusing 100%” on trying to get a good result to kickstart his campaign.

“I’m feeling good and ready to start riding at Mandalika again. We did a good job here during the winter test,” said Quartararo, who finished P2 in the pre-season test behind Qatar podium finisher Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team). “We got a lot of work done and completed many laps, so we will make good use of that.

“I don’t want to dwell on what happened in Qatar, also because I know that we have a good starting point for this weekend. I will be focusing 100% on getting a good result. Our pace was good here during the test, but many of our rivals were fast, so every detail and every fraction of a second will count.”

• MANDALIKA RESURFACING COMPLETE: "WE'RE REALLY CONFIDENT"

The Lombok layout has undergone rigorous resurfacing work since the test, which will see the riders tackle new asphalt on approximately 1.6km of the circuit. This, in addition to an updated tyre allocation from Michelin, means Quartararo and his rivals might not be able to hit the ground running using the same set-up as the test. We’ll find out if that’s the case at the end of Friday’s action in Mandalika.