Yamaha SRT closes in at top 10 for Americas GP qualifying

Michelle Liew

April 14, 2019

The 2019 MotoGP World Championship has made its way to Austin, Texas for the Americas GP. PRETONAS Yamaha SRT made its way to the top 10 this weekend, just like how they did in Argentina.

Yamaha SRT racers managed to deliver a stellar performance on Saturday in the Americas GP for round three. Fabio Quartararo succeeded in claiming the ninth grid and Franco Morbidelli coming in at tenth.

Quartararo has scored sterling results in the Circuit of the Americas back in Moto3 by clinching his first podium. This time, the Frenchman secured his qualifying round by coming in at ninth, clocking 2:04.941 for his run trailing behind Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci. As for Morbidelli, the Italian topped the top 10 with the record of 2:05.278.

Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha SRT): As It Happened

“Today was a tough day because we had some small problems that I think slowed down our progress. Even so, we were able to be get into the Top 10 with only one quick lap at the end, which is a good result. I need to put in more kilometres here with this bike, because I feel like I haven’t done enough laps in a row to understand the track fully. We have to keep working because we still have room for improvement. The difficulty we encountered today were the bumps, of which there are a lot. Towards the end of the day we found a good line and we are going to continue working on that tomorrow. We’ll see what happens and if today’s time is enough to qualify for Q2,” Quartararo states as quoted from Yamaha SRT team.

Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha SRT): As It Happened

“We are not officially into Q2 yet, but today the most important thing was to finish in the Top 10 because we know that tomorrow it is likely to rain. I made some mistakes on my two fastest laps, so I’m pretty happy because we only had one tyre to set our flying lap. It’s very good to finish in the Top 10 on the first day here in Austin. This circuit is very physical, but I felt ok on the bike. I think it’s one of the most demanding circuits of the year and we know it’s a good test of our fitness, although I think we’re in pretty good shape. We will see in the race, but it is a hard circuit,” adds Morbidelli.