Difficult weekend for the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team at the Mugello circuit. Since Friday the two riders have struggled to find the pace and the feeling with the bike and this has not allowed them to express themselves at their best both in qualifying and in the two races.
In free practice Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli took to the track to find the best set-up for the Tuscan circuit, but despite an encouraging first session in which Fabio set the second fastest time just a few thousandths of a second from the top and Franco clocked the seventh fastest time, they were unable to replicate that in FP2. So the two Yamaha riders had to start from Q1 for Saturday's qualifying.
In the first qualifying session, unfortunately neither of Quartararo and Morbidelli managed to put together a lap to qualify and so they had to settle for the fifth row for the start of the sprint and classic race. Frankie finished 14th while El Diablo 15th.
In the Sprint Race Quartararo made a strong start gaining positions and moving into the top ten. The arrival of rain messed up the plans and made Fabio's comeback even more difficult. In the end the 2021 World Champion managed to stay close to the top ten and overtook Bastianini on the last lap, regaining 10th position. Morbidelli after a good start was unable to hold the front group, slipping to 20th position. Gradually he tried to make a comeback by overtaking a few rivals, but his race came to a halt in 16th position.
On Sunday the two Iwata factory riders got off to another good start, gaining some positions at the first corner. Morbidelli managed to get into the top ten also thanks to Marc Marquez's crash and then tried to stay in front of Bastianini, failing to do so and dropping back to P11. In the end the No. 21 rider remained stable in that position, finishing in the top ten thanks to the crash of A. Marquez. Fabio tried to move up the classification, but once he reached the duo of Morbidelli and Bastianini he was unable to go any further, finishing 11th, benefiting from some crashes.
It was a weekend full of obstacles for the Yamaha Team, who are now looking ahead to the Sachsenring race this weekend, on a track perhaps more friendly to the YZR-M1.