The Grand Prix of Japan Sunday proved to be unpredictable. Spots of rain on the grid before the MotoGP Race added extra tension as the riders headed for the grid. But although the dark clouds were threatening, it remained dry. The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammates Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins couldn’t put this to their advantage, though. They rode to 12th and 16th place respectively.
Quartararo started from P12. Having lost a few spots in the early stages, he soon climbed up to 11th on the first lap. A battle with Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio ended with the Frenchman being relegated two positions. He was keen to join the riders ahead who were fighting for eighth place at the time after Pedro Acosta had crashed, but he was unable to catch up. The Yamaha man switched his attention to defending his position from a charging Johann Zarco for the remainder of the Race. With Maverick Vinales having crashed out on lap 12, Quartararo bolted towards the chequered flag holding 11th place. He tried to make his Yamaha as wide as possible but still lost the position to Zarco at the last instant as he ran out of fuel. He finished 12th, 32.299s from first.
Rins took off from P19, and held on to the position early in the Race. Though he had lost a place to Takaaki Nakagami, he still gradually moved up to 15th due to multiple crashes of rivals. The Spaniard, however, did not have the feeling he was looking for and was not able to push like he wanted. He was overtaken by Luca Marini on lap 16 but pushed on regardless and completed the Race in 16th position, 40.839s from the winner.
Today’s results see Quartararo hold 13th place in the overall standings with 86 points. Rins remains in joint-19th position with 20 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP keep their 9th place in the team championship with 106 points, and Yamaha hold on to 4th position in the constructor’s championship with 97 points.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team will be back in action in two weeks’ time for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, held at the Phillip Island circuit, from 18th-20th October.
Massimo Meregalli
Team Director
Up until the chequered flag, Fabio’s race was going as expected considering the performance we had this weekend. However, he ran out of fuel in the last corner, and we are currently checking why this happened. As for Alex, in the end we were not able to provide him with a set-up he felt comfortable with. We will leave this race weekend behind us and use the one-week break to recharge our batteries so we can attack the next triple header with renewed energy.
Fabio Quartararo
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
It was a tough weekend. I didn’t have any grip. Our bike depends on the track conditions. We need to work on this. We also ran out of fuel, so clearly we need to change some things.
Álex Rins
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
It was a really tough race. The first part of the Race was not bad. We started with the set-up from Austria to see if that would improve the braking and rear tyre contact, and it was more or less the case. I could feel the bike better. But when the tyre dropped, it was hard to control the wheelspin.
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