Petronas Yamaha SIC’s Franco Morbidelli completed the Qatar Test in P7 after ending the third and final day of preseason in sixth place, a 1:54.660 his fastest lap.
Upon reflection, the Italian was happy with his work on Day 3 under the lights, but insists he and the team need to piece everything together ahead of the race.
“I’m very happy about today. We’ve been struggling in a few areas, but we were able to not solve completely the problem we had but at least we were able to solve it in some occasions. So we just need to put everything together for the Grand Prix. I would say that we put on great work, I would just say we need to put everything together to be competitive in the race and in the time attack.”
Morbidelli completes a Yamaha quartet that sits inside the top seven at the Losail International Circuit. A good sign for the 2019 machine’s potential and the 2017 Moto2™ World Champion is hopeful he and the team can fix the issues they’ve been having before the lights go out on 10th March.
“I really hope so, I don’t know. I will tell you in two weeks,” responded Morbidelli, when asked if he thinks the problem can be fixed in time for the opening round of 2019. “According to the data we collected, I’m really hopeful we can fix the problems we have.
“I’m struggling with tipping the bike into the corner at the moment. We’ve been trying a lot of stuff. As I said in some moments of the day the tipping in was good, so let’s try to put everything together.”
With teammate Fabio Quartararo ending the Qatar Test in P2 on the timesheets, things are looking good for the Petronas Yamaha SIC team ahead of their debut race in the premier class. Find out if Morbidelli can solve his issues when the MotoGP™ riders return to the Losail International Circuit on 8th March.