Quartararo takes 11th place in #ThaiGP Sprint, Morbidelli 15th

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Fabio Quartararo was battling with several rivals in today‘s Thailand Grand Prix Sprint. He was showing great speed in the first sector, but still finished in 11th place. Franco Morbidelli had a difficult start but upped the pace towards the end to cross the finish line in 15th place.

Quartararo started from P10. After a bit of wrestling, he completed the opening lap in the same place as he had started the 13-lap Sprint. The Frenchman had great pace but struggled to find a way through in the rider group battling for seventh and was relegated a place by Jack Miller amid the action. A gap to the riders ahead then formed, leaving Quartararo and Miller to duke it out for tenth. On lap 9, the Yamaha man made a pass, but one lap later they swapped positions once again. El Diablo kept the pressure on, flashing red first sectors in the live timing on every lap, but he came just short. He finished in 11th place, 9.339s from the winner.

Morbidelli started from P18 and lost a position on the opening lap. As other riders encountered issues he moved up to 17th, but on lap 4 he lost ground and found himself in 19th place once more after a hard battle with Miguel Oliveira. With Augusto Fernandez and Fabio Di Giannantonio retiring from the Sprint on lap 6 and 10 respectively, and after overtaking Pol Espargaró and Raul Fernandez, Morbido had moved into 15th place by the last lap. Maverick Viñales had to complete a long lap penalty and fell back to 18th, but Raul Fernandez regained his lost position, so Morbidelli completed the Sprint in 15th place, 15.535s from first.

Today‘s results see Quartararo keep 10th place in the overall standings with 134 points. Morbidelli stays in 13th with 79 points. The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team also hold on to 6th in the team championship with 213 points, and Yamaha is now in 5th position in the constructor‘s championship with 154 points.

The team will be back in action tomorrow for Warm Up, held from 10:40 – 10:50 GMT +7*, and the Race, which starts at 15:00.

*For Europe and some other countries, Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, 29 October 2023, at 3am (the clocks are turned back 1 hour to 2am).

FABIO QUARTARARO

I did a great lap time this morning, a 1’29.7s. That‘s the lap time I expected to do, but I qualified in P10, really far back on the grid. This morning, when riding alone, I was able to make a really fast pace, but when we‘re racing in a group, I‘m slower and can‘t overtake. We have to see what happens tomorrow in the Race. Of course, I will push to the maximum, like I did today. Today, I made two or three mistakes that cost me a few seconds because I was pushing to really find the limit. That‘s what we needed to do today to prepare for tomorrow.

FRANCO MORBIDELLI

I was expecting better. I was confident coming into this weekend, but unfortunately we were not able to get through to Q2, and starting from 18th is a big problem. To recover positions, I tried to overtake Miguel, then we touched. I lost a lot of time because of that, but I‘m encouraged by the speed that I have – not by the results so far this weekend – but the speed is good.