The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team had to stay alert and think on their feet at the start of today’s Grand Prix of The Americas. The MotoGP event had it all: tricky to predict riding conditions, a delayed start, and quite a bit of chaos before and during the Race. Fabio Quartararo’s and Álex Rins’ grit shown throughout the 19-laps was ultimately rewarded with a 10th and 11th place and valuable points.
There was a lot of drama at the Circuit of The Americas before the MotoGP Race even started. Quartararo had a crash on the sighting lap but was able to remount his YZR-M1 and taxi to the starting grid with some help of Jack Miller. However, once he was at the starting grid and had changed into new leathers, more unexpected events took place. Various riders decided last minute to switch bikes (to go to slicks), causing the race start to be delayed and the race length to be reduced to 19 laps.
A quick starting procedure ensued with Quartararo on his second bike, which the team had hastily converted from a wet to a dry set-up. The number-20 rider had a good start from P11, moving up as high as 7th over the first lap. He was part of a group of six riders battling for 5th place in the opening stages with more and more riders gradually joining. The Yamaha rider tried to attack as well as defend, but he found himself in a difficult position due to an unusual dashboard notification, and he fell back to 14th. A tumultuous final 10 laps saw El Diablo battle with various riders while multiple other rivals crashed out or retired from the race. The Frenchman was riding in a lonely 10th place by the end of the race and took the chequered flag 18.255s from the winner.
Rins started from P14 on slicks. He briefly got up to 11th, riding behind his teammate after the opening corners, but then started to lose ground after contact with another rider. After lap 2, he found himself in 21st place but mounted a comeback, moving up to 18th following a scrap with Augusto Fernández. He continued his charge, overtaking Raul Fernandez, while multiple other riders failed to complete the race distance. It allowed the Spaniard to rise up to 11th place. He held the position across the finish line, crossing it 24.256s from first.
Today’s results see Quartararo in joint-12th place in the overall standings with 16 points. Rins is joint 15th with 10 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP is now in 7th place in the team championship with 26 points, and Yamaha remains in 5th position in the constructor championship with 28 points.
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP will be back in action in two weeks’ time for the Grand Prix of Qatar, which will be held at the Lusail International Circuit from 11-13 April.
Massimo Meregalli
Team Director, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
“It has been quite a rollercoaster today. The crash on the sighting lap by Fabio made everthing a bit more complicated because, according to the regulations, if Fabio had entered pit lane, he would have had to start from pit lane with a different tyre specification and would have been handed a ride-through penalty. So, we had to tell him to go to the starting grid, and we prepared the bike there, changing the set-up from dry to wet. But then the start got delayed. The first bike was damaged, so we had to start the Race with the second bike, which hadn’t been used by Fabio all weekend. We didn’t have the time to change this bike from wet to dry. Basically, Fabio raced with a hybrid bike: a mix of wet and dry. With the bike like that, we didn’t know very well what was going to happen. On top of this. it seems that he received some unusual notification on his YZR-M1’s dashboard, which led to him riding the race in low-power mode, and we need to understand why this alert occurred. Álex found himself in a similar situation as the day before, during the Sprint. He showed a stronger pace at the end of the Race, but he unfortunately had lost a lot of time at the beginning. One silver lining is that yesterday and today Yamaha took a fifth and a sixth place. We are seeing progress, and this is important. We will try to build onto this for the next GP weekend in Qatar in two weeks’ time.”
Fabio Quartararo
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
“I don’t understand why I crashed on the sighting lap. I was basically upright, the tarmac looked quite dry, and I wasn’t even pushing, but I lost the front – it was a strange crash. It was my first crash of the year, and the first one in a long time. I then went to the starting grid. I was on rain tyres during the first starting grid procedure, and it was a mess. Then we had the delayed start. My first bike was damaged anyway, so I had to use my second bike, which had a different chassis and swingarm… But, overall, we had a great weekend, especially the Sprint, and hopefully we’ll have better luck at the next one.”
Álex Rins
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
“We were able to understand the bike and the set-up. We changed the set-up quite a lot compared to yesterday. We did a step in Warm Up, and it was positive. Then we made one more step for the main race. But, honestly, I’m happy with how I managed all the nerves, because it was super easy to make a mistake. We did a good start. I had some contact on the first lap, which forced me to go back to last the position. Step by step I recovered, and I was able to finish in P11. We will keep working, and let’s see if we can have a good feeling in Qatar.”
