For only the second time this season, Quartararo will compete in the pole shootout qualifying session on Saturday. He finished Friday’s practice at his home round in 10th place.
Yamaha made some changes to Quartararo’s bike for the Jerez test after the Spanish GP. However, for the Le Mans race, they only brought a few changes, not including the swingarm Quartararo was hoping to use.
Quartararo’s teammate, Alex Rins, struggled and could only manage 14th place. Quartararo said the changes to his bike didn’t help much during Friday’s practice.
“I don’t know how I managed that lap,” Quartararo said. “I pushed as hard as I could. The setup we have for the bike is very limited.
“We made a good choice with the front tire, using the hard compound. I was already in 8th place after my first timed lap. So, I had to push even harder to improve. It was a close call, but it’s positive that we are less than two tenths away from third place.”
When asked about any improvements he felt on the bike, Quartararo said, “Unfortunately, nothing yet. We are still using the standard bike, and we need to make improvements, especially in grip, both when accelerating and when entering corners.”
One major issue for Yamaha this year has been a lack of rear grip. Quartararo emphasized the importance of understanding why the bike’s behavior changes so much with different levels of grip.
“Grip is our main problem,” he said. “This morning, with the medium tires, it was a nightmare. As soon as we get a bit more grip, the bike feels completely different. We need to figure out why the bike changes so much with more grip. In the past, losing grip didn’t affect the performance as much as it does now. So, our main focus right now is to improve grip and the bike’s turning ability.”
