MotoGP Japanese GP
MotoGP points leader Quartararo hasn't enjoyed riding "for a long time"
MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo admits his struggles with the Yamaha in 2022 have led to him "not enjoying riding a bike in a race for a long time".
Lewis Duncan German Garcia Casanova
Edited: Sep 29, 2022, 4:01 PM
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Quartararo has endured a largely difficult second half to the 2022 season on the underpowered Yamaha package.
With its difficulties in being able to overtake, Quartararo was unable to minimise the damage of a long lap penalty at Silverstone – leaving him eighth – while he could only muster fifth at Misano and eighth last weekend at Motegi, while at Aragon he crashed on lap one.
With just one podium to his credit in the last six races, Quartararo's championship lead was just 10 points before a crash in Japan for Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia and a difficult run to 16th for Aleix Espargaro allowed the Frenchman to open up his advantage to 18.
Conceding his own Motegi race was "frustrating" as he simply couldn't overtake anyone, Quartararo revealed that he just isn't enjoying riding the Yamaha right now.
"You have to think about the future, and that's the next race because we won't be back in Japan until next year, and then we'll have a better bike," Quartararo said.
"I haven't enjoyed riding a bike in a race for a long time.
"If you don't go out in the front row, [you can wave] bye-bye [to your chances of winning]."
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Dorna
This adds to comments Quartararo made earlier in the summer when he said he wasn't enjoying riding the Yamaha in qualifying trim, as the lap times weren't coming as easy to him as they were in previous years.
This is reflected in the fact he has just one pole to his name in 2022 and only four other front-row appearances.
Yamaha has been hard at work in Japan developing a more powerful engine for the 2023 season, which Quartararo tested at Misano following the San Marino GP.
Developed with the help of ex-F1 engine chief Luca Marmorini as a consultant, Quartararo heaped praise on the new motor – even if he felt there was still more to be done on it before it was race ready.
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