How Quartararo has been affected by Yamaha’s poor MotoGP form

Yamaha MotoGP Star Fabio Quartararo He said he needed to “step away from racing” after a disappointing performance at last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

Quartararo made a strong start to the Phillip Island weekend, putting his M1 on pole position with a record-breaking speed in qualifying.

While some expected him to be in the podium fight given Yamaha’s relatively poor race pace, Quartararo could not even hold on to a top 10 finish in the race, crossing the finish line in 11th place.

He wasn’t even the top representative of the Iwata-based brand as a teammate alex rinse Delivered a strong performance to finish seventh, just one place behind the top Honda Luca Marini,

While Honda has made massive progress since the summer break, Yamaha has not been able to match the progress of its domestic rival, instead focusing on the development of its new V4 bike for 2026.

Asked whether MotoGP’s 22-round calendar was impacting the riders, Quartararo said his situation was made more difficult by the lack of competition on track.

“Mentally, when you create results it is fine, but what we are doing right now, I think it is (difficult),” he said.

“Of course, (there’s) motivation because I want to be fast, I want to be there. But when the results aren’t coming, you just want to go home and try to look at the positives. But right now, it’s about training well, finishing in the best way possible and of course trying to prepare.”

He said: “I’m especially looking forward to the next four days, where I can disconnect from racing a bit. I really need that. Sepang is a track I love, but I’m just trying to forget a bit about what happened and just focus on myself.”

Quartararo said he had no clear explanation for his lack of pace in Sunday’s race, finishing seventh in the sprint and setting the fourth-fastest time in the warm-up.

“Really weird,” he described. “To be honest, I didn’t expect to race like this. I know my pace was good, but I don’t know what happened (that made me) feel such a difference in emotions.

“We noticed that during the race I didn’t have the pace in any of the laps. I don’t really know what happened today. I couldn’t stop the bike, I couldn’t really keep the pace. We still have to check really, but I never felt like that throughout the weekend. Even in FP1, with the medium rear, I felt competitive, I felt fast. But on Sunday, I didn’t feel good at all, so let’s see what the team tells me.”

Ahead of this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, Quartararo sits ninth in the riders’ championship, while Yamaha sits last in the manufacturers’ standings.

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– Autosport.com Team