MotoGP Australia: Yamaha: 'We have 20 hours to come up with a solution'

Left at the tail of the timesheets throughout Friday, Quartararo gave Yamaha brief hope with seventh place in Saturday’s final practice.

But the Frenchman was back to 17th in qualifying, with team-mate Franco Morbidelli just 20th.

Quartararo then lost more ground on the opening lap of the grand prix before passing Morbidelli, Pol Espargaro, Raul Fernandez and finally a fading Marc Marquez (the top Honda) to take 14th place on the last lap.

“It was a tough qualifying and a tough race,” said Quartararo, who crossed the line in the wheeltracks of Miguel Oliveira. “We have to keep working to make a step forward.

“I didn‘t expect to have this feeling, I expected much better. But it is what it is, and we have to keep working hard, as always, to find a solution.”

Despite his own disappointment, Quartararo had been quick to congratulate countryman Johann Zarco on a debut victory, 20.949s ahead of him, during the slowdown lap.

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Morbidelli, one of only three riders to use the medium rather than hard front tyre, finished in 17th place, a distant 37.7s behind Zarco.

“I need to be content with the first half of the race I did. Then, unfortunately, I dropped a bit too much in the second half,” Morbidelli said. “Maybe the medium front wasn‘t the right choice, but anyway, if we ride tomorrow, we‘ll try to make another step, have a better start, and give even more.”

The Australian MotoGP was Yamaha’s lowest-scoring main race of the season, after 14th and 15th places at Silverstone.

Team director Massimo Meregalli admitted the writing was on the wall for the M1s, which often struggle to pass other bikes, after the nightmare qualifying.

“We have been struggling all weekend to find a good pace. The results in qualifying were also disappointing, so we knew from that point on that this race would be very difficult, and it was like that,” Meregalli said.

“There is not much to say at the moment. It is also difficult to believe that we can make drastic improvements on the bike for tomorrow, but we have 20 hours to come up with a solution.

“However, it remains to be seen if they will be of use for tomorrow. It will all depend on the weather how the Sunday Sprint plays out.”

The half-distance Sprint, which swapped places with the main grand prix due to weather fears for Sunday, is due to start at 1pm local time.

However, that will depend on whether the forecast extreme wind, rain and cold temperatures materialise.