Yamaha’s Quartararo Dominates 2-Day Misano MotoGP Test

2019 Misano MotoGP Test Results

Though Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo suffered an opening-lap crash last Sunday during the British Grand Prix that caused a DNF, he redeemed himself during this week’s two-day official MotoGP test at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

The Yamaha YZR-M1 pilot was quickest Thursday but was much faster Friday when he posted a best of 1:31.639, which is just 0.010 of a second off the lap record posted by Jorge Lorenzo last season (Repsol Honda).

When both days were complete, Quartararo would finish 0.476 of a second ahead of Mission Winnow Ducati Team’s Danilo Petrucci, and 0.614 ahead of the other Petronas Yamaha SRT pilot Franco Morbidelli.

“We tried some really positive new settings on the front of the bike, which is positive because there’s a lot of braking on the side of the tire at Misano and you need to get good feedback from the bike,” Fabio Quartararo says.

“We didn’t make a lot of laps on the second day like we did on day one, but we found some good things for the race. I’m really looking forward to the weekend now that we’ve been able to be really fast. The times won’t mean too much come the race because we’ll have very different levels of grip then, but I was able to do an amazing lap, I have good pace and we’ll arrive to the race with over 150 laps done before we even start FP1.”

In combined times from both days. Monster Energy Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi finished fourth 0.750 of a second back. The nine-time World Champion was followed by Pramac Racing Ducati’s Jack Miller (-0.766); teammate Maverick Vinales (-0.937); and the final rider to post within a second of Quartararo, Pramac Racing Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia (- 0.968);

Rounding out the top were LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami; Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Aleix Espargaro; and Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez, who leads Mission Winnow Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso by 78 points heading into round 13 of 19.

The 2019 MotoGP Championship returns in two weeks for the San Marion Grand Prix September 13-15 at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.