Call The Asphalt Condition Of The Mandalika Circuit Better, Quartararo: During The Preseason Test, Stones Were Thrown, This Time Small Pieces

JAKARTA - Fabio Quartararo said that the asphalt condition of the Pertamina Mandalika Circuit was much better after part of the track was re-paved ahead of the Grand Prix of Indonesia this weekend.

The Monster Energy Yamaha team rider found himself fastest in both free practice sessions on Friday after scoring a best lap of 1:31,608 in FP2.

"It felt different, the last time during the pre-season test the stones were thrown, this time (the debris) is smaller, so this is better," said Quartararo in response to the asphalt condition of the circuit on the south coast of Lombok, as quoted by Antara.

During the pre-season test session on February 11-13, the drivers complained about the track conditions being dirty, dusty and the asphalt peeling off. Not to mention the bits of asphalt or small stones that are thrown at them like bullets when driving behind other racers.

As a new circuit, the track conditions were also not friendly for the racers because the racing line was still narrow at that time because there were not many rubber tires attached to the asphalt so that the riders were unable to push their motorbikes to the limit.

Reflecting on the results of pre-season tests, Dorna Sports and the FIM identified two areas that need to be improved, namely the cleanliness of the track surface and the amount of aggregate, such as sand, dust and gravel or crushed stone, on the track and recommended re-paving some parts of the track before Turn 17 until after Turn 5, or about 17.5 percent of the total track.

"I don't know for sure because in some areas you feel the grip, in others you don't. So it has to be covered with rubber tires because in the racing area where the rubber feels good but in the braking zone the grip is not very good. Really two different grips on the same asphalt."

Quartararo also said that the racing line this time was much better, especially before the MotoGP bikes paved the way for practice, the track had been swept by ATC, Moto3 and Moto2 riders.

"Now here when you're out you can still control it but in the test (pre-season) you have to go straight, there's not a lot of decisions to make when you get off track.

"But here if you go wide you don't push too much and you can still turn."

The same thing was expressed by his teammate, Franco Morbidelli, who became the second fastest driver in the FP2 session.

"Today I was going behind the others but I didn't get hit by a stone so I can say this is better," said Morbidelli.

After a rainy morning at the track, the top ten drivers in FP1 were separated by less than a second. However, the margin between them is tighter given the dry track conditions at the start of FP2.

The intense afternoon training session saw the top 18 riders' records fall by less than a second as all of the riders were able to go even faster than they did in the morning training session.

Gresini Racing's Enea Bastianini is currently in control of the riders' standings thanks to his maiden MotoGP victory when he took the top podium in Qatar.

Bastianini on a Ducati GP21 motorbike proved to be one of the serious threats to rivals after a promising start to the season.

Brad Binder took the podium in Qatar for the first time also for KTM in Lusail after finishing P2 ahead of a highly motivated Pol Espargaro following the Honda RC213V's satisfactory performance since the start of the season.

Meanwhile, reigning champion Quartararo wants to forget the poor result in Qatar where he was only able to finish P9 following Yamaha's poor performance and top speed deficit there.