Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins are looking forward to starting Round 4 on the 2024 MotoGP calendar and pushing at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto this weekend.
Quartararo used the Americas GP weekend to test various settings. Now, almost a fortnight later and having celebrated turning 25, the Frenchman is ready to get back to action at the Gran Premio de España and to continue building onto his earlier efforts. He is currently in 12th place the championship standings.
El Diablo’s podium success in Jerez came in spectacular fashion: in 2020, he won the two consecutive opening GPs of the season, both held in Jerez, which were also his very first two victories in the premier class. In 2022, he graced the podium once more with a second-place finish.
Rins arrives in Jerez holding 19th place in the overall standings after the Austin outing. The Spaniard made some set-up gambles during the previous Race with the aim to gather data. He is strongly determined to come back fighting in Jerez.
The number-42 rider visited the Spanish GP podium for the first time in 2014 in the Moto3 class, taking third place. He repeated the feat in the Moto2 class in 2016 and scored second place in the MotoGP class in 2019. Though the Jerez race hasn’t been lucky for Rins in recent years, he is keen to change that at the upcoming round.
The Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Test Team and rider Cal Crutchlow held a private test at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya last week. Furthermore, the Gran Premio de España will be followed by the one-day Jerez MotoGP Official Test, attended by Quartararo and Rins, which will afford Yamaha and Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP extra track time to collect valuable data.
The Circuito de Jerez was built in 1986 and has hosted one of the most popular MotoGP events of the season ever since. Blessed with good weather, beautiful scenery, fast corners, hard braking areas, and a natural amphitheatre, the 4.4km Jerez circuit offers spectators a great view of the thrilling racing action that takes place there.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
Team Director
Though we have been working hard, we now enter one of the busiest periods of this season for Yamaha and our team. The Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Test Team was in Barcelona for a Private Test with Cal [Crutchlow] last week. This week, we have the Spanish GP, immediately followed by the one-day Official IRTA Jerez Test. These are all very important to our team, as our focus is bike development. We have updates due in the not-too-distant future, and the data we’re gathering over the space of these few weeks will be highly valuable.
FABIO QUARTARARO
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
I celebrated my birthday last weekend, and I want to thank everyone because I received a lot of congratulations, and I saw a lot of messages from the fans. But now we go back to work. We tried many things in Austin, and that was great because it gave us more clarity. Cal [Crutchlow, Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Test Team rider] tested in Barcelona last week, and we also have a one-day test here in Jerez following the Race. So, this is a busy period for us, and we hope to get a lot of work done, because our main target now is bike development.
ÁLEX RINS
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
I’m looking forward to racing in front of the Jerez crowds again because they create a really nice atmosphere. Last time out in Austin, we decided to try some new things during Warm Up and the Race, but it didn’t work. Now we know. We have taken a good look at the Round-3 data and learned from it, and now we can work in a different direction. We also have an extra day of testing on Monday that will also help with this.
- From Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
