Quartararo Relinquishes Championship Lead in Australia

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s #fabioquartararo saw his title lead slip away in #Australia this weekend, after crashing out of the Australian Grand Prix, unhurt, at turn two while recovering from an earlier mistake. 

Fabio Quartararo didn’t have the Australian Grand Prix he was hoping for after a mistake at turn four saw him run off the circuit before ultimately tipping off his YZR-M1 at turn two. Monster Energy Yamaha #MotoGP team-mate #francomorbidelli also crashed out, while both WithU Yamaha #MotoGP riders picked up points for 13th and 14th places respectively. 

Following rainfall throughout the night, conditions dried up ahead of Sunday afternoon’s 27-lap affair, which would see Quartararo launch from the middle of row two. Making a strong start, the Frenchman tipped into turn one in third but slipped back to fifth in the opening couple of corners. 

As always in #Australia, tyre management would be key and knowing the leading battle would contain multiple riders, the 23-year-old immediately began to conserve his harder rear tyre. Dropping behind Jack Miller on lap three, Quartararo quickly found himself mired behind Luca Marini and Alex Marquez, but a costly error while trying to re-pass the Spanish Honda rider saw him unable to stop his machine into the turn four hairpin, running off the track and falling to 22nd. 

Re-joining, ‘El Diablo’ got his head down, working his way passed Raul Fernandez followed by his fellow Yamahas and was back into the points. With a large gap to Pol Espargaro to bridge, the World Champion battled on, but lost the front at turn two, ending his race early. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Monster Energy Yamaha garage, #francomorbidelli looked to make progress from a tricky qualifying. Ending the opening lap outside the top 20, the Italian pushed on but crashed out of the points battle on lap 22. The former Moto2 champion was perfectly OK but unable to rejoin the race.

WithU Yamaha RNF #MotoGP Team’s #calcrutchlow and Darryn Binder both demonstrated strong race pace as they battled their way to a double-points finish. 

Crutchlow, who qualified 17th, made a strong start and worked his way into the points by lap nine. Continuing his forward momentum, the British rider flew passed Remy Gardner and Joan Mir before Miguel Oliveira relegated him to 13th at the finish line. 

Likewise, team-mate Darryn Binder made a strong start from 18th on the grid. The South African found himself on the cusp of the points in the early stages before working his way through the pack with team-mate Crutchlow, crossing the line 0.636 seconds behind his team-mate. 

A non-finish for Quartararo means the Frenchman relinquishes his title lead for the first time since round five in Portimão and heads to Malaysia 14 points adrift of the championship leader Francesco Bagnaia. 

MotoGP will be back in action next weekend as the series heads to the Sepang International Circuit for the penultimate round of the season across the 21-23rd October. 

Cal Crutchlow – WithU Yamaha RNF #MotoGP Team, 13th 

"Honestly speaking, I'm a bit disappointed with the result but I caused it myself, I did a mistake during the start and fell back almost to last, so I had to come back through. My problem was in the first lap, I had no heat in the brake, I got a good start, went into turn one and ran wide and the bike started to shook and I went backward. I was pleased with my pace in the race, I just picked my way through and passed by some guys. If I would have went with Johann (Zarco) and rode the way I should have ridden here, I could have stayed there as I had the pace. I felt really good, the best all weekend so it's a shame for the result, but the last five laps I just had no tyre left. But, I was quite pleased with the bike and felt in control of the bike with the lap time I was doing. Now, we go to Malaysia and try with Fabio to win there, cause now all we can do is try to win." 

Darryn Binder - WithU Yamaha RNF #MotoGP Team, 13th 

“I’m really happy with the race today. I’m glad to find my way back into the points again. I had a really good race. I was in amongst good company, behind Cal for a lot of the race. The gap to the first position is the closest it’s ever been with 14 seconds! I feel I did a good job this weekend, improving in every session and putting together a strong race. I’m happy with how things ended, it’s great to get some points again and now I’m looking forward to Malaysia.” 

Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha #MotoGP, DNF 

" I was struggling a lot in Turn 4 because of the wind. I already made a mistake there earlier at the beginning of the race. After the second mistake, I tried to push. I was quite far behind. I did manage to overtake a few riders, but then I pushed too much in Turn 2. I made a mistake. Let's see how we can handle the next races. I think Malaysia is a good track for us. I like it, so let's see how we can do it. The championship changed a lot since Sachsenring, and that means it can also change for us in the last two GPs. I feel that we can make two great last races. We need to be focused, work well, and then we'll see. We go to Malaysia with full motivation! I want to enjoy these last two races, that will be the most important, because when I enjoy the races, I know we can be fast.” 

Franco Morbidelli - Monster Energy Yamaha #MotoGP, DNF 

“Unfortunately, I crashed in the race. I was starting from far behind, and I struggled to recover some positions. When I was riding alone, I didn't have the speed. Instead, when I was riding behind other #people, I felt good potential. Overall, it's been a tough weekend, but we did see some good things in some moments, like in FP4, when I was quick. So, we'll keep working and keep digging to make those moments last longer. I struggled to put it all together here, but we'll try again in Malaysia.” 

Razlan Razali – Founder & Team Principal, WithU Yamaha RNF #MotoGP Team 

"It was a fantastic race by both riders as #calcrutchlow and Darryn Binder came 13th and 14th respectively, the best two Yamaha in this weekend's race and bringing home some valuable points to the team. Darryn showed a good start and a strong race until tyres degradation puts him right behind Cal. Meanwhile, Cal also had a very strong pace to be where he is. In general, it was a fantastic race by both riders and the team and to be the best Yamaha at Phillip Island Circuit." 

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha #MotoGP, Team Director 

“It was a disappointing race for us. Things didn‘t go quite our way already from this morning. Warm Up was wet, while we had planned on using these 20 minutes to make some final dry set-up tweaks. But even without that opportunity, we were feeling positive. We had prepared for the race in the best way we could and thought we could get a good result, but regrettably this was a day to forget. It was unfortunate that Fabio‘s and Franky‘s crashes ended our race early and that it resulted in Fabio losing the championship lead. But the gap is only 14 points and there are two more GPs to go. Anything can happen in #MotoGP, so we need to dust ourselves off quickly and get back into the saddle. We need a strong race in Malaysia next weekend to turn the championship back around.” 

Further information in the press release to download