Quartararo blames tyre choice after first-to-seventh drop in Australian GP sprint

Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo believes he made a mistake by opting for the medium front tyre after finishing a distant seventh in the Australian Grand Prix sprint.

Quartararo scored his fifth pole position of the season in qualifying earlier on Saturday morning, but his race unravelled immediately at the start as he made a poor launch and dropped to fifth on the opening lap.

He lost more places to KTM’s Pedro Acosta and VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio over the following laps, eventually taking the chequered flag 8.7s behind race winner Marco Bezzecchi in seventh.

Meanwhile, Pramac rider Jack Miller showed the potential of the Yamaha package as he fought for the podium until the final lap, missing out to Acosta for third place by just 0.066s.

Quartararo believes his decision to race with the medium front, as opposed to the hard used by the majority of the field, ultimately proved to be his downfall at Phillip Island.

“I expected more, but I made a mistake completely [by] choosing the medium tyre,” he said.

“The team pushed me quite a lot to go with the hard, but I wanted to go with the medium. For us, it was really, really soft.”

Quartararo was the only Yamaha to use Michelin’s medium front in the race, with Ducati’s di Giannantonio, Michele Pirro and Alex Marquez, and LCR Honda duo Johann Zarco and Somkiat Chantra the only other riders to make the same choice.

Asked why he preferred the medium over the hard, despite Yamaha’s insistence, the Frenchman said: “Because this morning I made the pole with the medium. I didn't feel any weak points. 

“The stability was good, the grip was good, even with the used tyre [it] was okay. But this afternoon, the team said it's much more hard. 

“I felt the wind was holding, but from lap one, the tyre was a chewing gum for us. But especially here, you really need the front [and] we didn't have it.”

Quartararo will have another opportunity in Sunday’s race, where sprint winner Marco Bezzecchi will have to serve two long-lap penalties for causing a collision with Marc Marquez at the Indonesian Grand Prix.

The 2021 champion was positive about his prospects for Sunday, as he is aware of what held him back in the sprint.

“First of all, we have to see what happened at the start,” he said. “I don't really know why it was so bad. Then the hard front tyre. And then, we will have to check [whether to use] medium or soft for the rear. 

He added: “I'm happy because I said, ‘Okay, if the medium is working, it's good and if it's not working, it's information for tomorrow.’ 

“Now, I clearly see that I made a mistake and that the tyre that we need to use is the hard. So, it's good. 

“Sometimes you go slow and you don't know why. But now I know why we went slow in the race. And it's also helping me mentally.”