Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli completed their 2022 pre-season testing programme at the Mandalika Circuit today. The third consecutive session was crucial to collect some final data on race simulations and time attacks. They ultimately took second and fourth place respectively in today‘s timesheets and second and fifth in the overall MotoGP test results.
There was a slightly amended time schedule today, as the track was cleaned between 13:15-13:45 local time (GMT+8).
This morning Quartararo picked up where he left off, on only his 18th lap he set a 1‘31.275s that put him in second place. Following the track cleaning, he worked on the race pace of his YZR-M1. He completed an 18-lap race simulation and then readied himself for one final shoot-out on soft tyres at the end of the day. His 1‘31.074s, set on lap 77/79 kept him in second position in both today‘s and the overall results, 0.014s from first.
Morbidelli used the final day of pre-season testing to mainly work on his feeling with the front of the bike. It was the preparation needed for the Italian‘s final push. In the closing minutes of the session, he committed to one last time attack. His fastest lap was a 1‘31.416s, set on lap 68/69, that earned him fourth place in the Day 3 rankings and fifth place in the combined results, 0.356s from the top.
The team will now return to Europe whilst the engineers in Japan process the testing data. The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team will regroup in Qatar from 4-6 March to kick off the 2022 season.
