Yamaha halts Sepang MotoGP running while investigating M1 engine issue

Yamaha has decided to suspend all on-track activity during the second day of the Sepang MotoGP test while it works to determine the cause of the issue that forced Fabio Quartararo to stop on Tuesday.

The Frenchman crashed at Turn 5 of the Malaysian circuit on the opening day of the official test and fractured the middle finger on his right hand. Despite the swelling and heavy bleeding, he returned to the track later in the afternoon, but his M1 stopped at Turn 2 due to an engine problem — specifically with the V4 power unit that Yamaha has focused its development on since last year.

Hours later, Quartararo decided to pack up and return to Spain. He is due to undergo medical checks in Barcelona on Wednesday, where doctors will establish a recovery plan aimed at getting him to the next test in Buriram, just over two weeks away, in the best possible condition.

That same evening, Yamaha’s engineers investigated the nature of the problem but were unable to find an answer. This raised serious concerns to the point that the manufacturer opted to suspend all track activity until a clear explanation is found. As a result, no Yamaha riders took to the circuit on Wednesday morning while the factory in Japan and the race team on site worked together to shed light on the situation.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

“We are still trying to understand what caused the problem that affected Fabio yesterday afternoon [Tuesday],” Yamaha team manager Massimo Meregalli told Motorsport.com.

“It’s a safety issue. Once we understand the origin of it, we will go back out — whether that’s today or tomorrow. We are waiting for the green light.”

Meregalli denied that the failure was in any way related to Quartararo’s crash and played down the overall impact the setback would have on Yamaha’s test programme.

“The problem has absolutely nothing to do with Fabio’s crash,” he stressed, while underlining the importance of the work completed during last week’s three-day shakedown.

“To put a percentage on it, I would say we have completed 80% of the programme we had planned. We have the base of the bike. Set-up is what we would have worked on over these two days,” the former Italian rider explained.

“Probably Toprak is the only rider who hasn’t yet been able to try what was on his schedule. All the others had the same material,” the Yamaha executive concluded.