Fabio Quartararo showed visible delight after the three-day MotoGP test in Sepang where he posted his best lap around the Malaysian circuit.
The 2021 champion finished at the top of the timesheets on Day 1 and in the top three across the three days.
The Frenchman showed his delight at the progress made to the Yamaha over the winter but didn’t get complacent.
“Very happy,” Quartararo reflected after the three days to Crash.net.
“My fastest lap was qualifying last year was a 1:57.5, so I think the gap is more than 0.8 seconds.
“I was saying that from 2019 to 2024 we improve 0.6 seconds, and from 2024 to 2025 0.8 seconds. Of course, we can be happy.
“We need to stay calm, it’s only the test, but I think it’s quite good.
“Last year in the test Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] made a 1:56.6 or 1:56.5, and this is more or less the lap time that they did this year, so I think we can be pretty happy.”
Quartararo reveals Yamaha improvements from 2024 season
The 25-year-old revealed the areas that the Japanese marque improved on from its 2024 season, but there is a notable improvement in lap times.
“It looks similar but it’s not the same,” he said of the 2025 M1.
“Basically, it’s many electronics that have changed, the way I ride – we have new things on the bike.
“Of course it’s difficult to see what’s new, but lap-time-wise we can see that we were much quicker than last year.”
“We improved a lot our feeling going into the corners, on change of direction also.”
Despite these notable improvements, Quartararo and Yamaha gained a clear picture of the issues that remained ever-present on the M1.
“But our weak point is grip. Today the track was really grippy, you can see it’s black from rubber. I will not say our lap time is fake because last year it was the same and we were one second from P1 – now we are 0.3 seconds [away].
“I’m looking forward to seeing when the track will be really low grip conditions; this is the worst conditions for us.”
Yamaha to Ducati gap is ‘closer’ – Quartararo
Quartararo suggested that the gap between Yamaha and Ducati was “closer” following the three days of action.
He was the only rider not in Ducati colours to post a lap time in the 1.56s barrier, highlighting the drastic improvement made compared to the team’s situation 12 months ago.
“I think that every year, especially from 2022–2024, we make one step, but Ducati and the others make two or three,” he said.
“I think this year we have reached to make much more steps. I think it’s a different riding style from 2019 or 2021, but I feel the bike is fast, so the riding style is slightly different from the past but I think it’s the first year that we managed to close the gap.
“In the past, we just improved but the others improved; or we improved but the others even more. Now I think that the gap is closer.
READ MORE – 2025 Sepang MotoGP test rundown
