Fabio Quartararo knew Yamaha engine was going to blow up in tough Aragon GP sprint

Fabio Quartararo says he knew his Yamaha engine was going to “blow up” after encountering a series of technical problems during the Aragon Grand Prix sprint.

What had already proved to be a challenging weekend for the 2021 MotoGP champion got worse on Saturday afternoon, when he was forced to stop on track with heavy smoke bellowing from his M1.

Yamaha had already suffered engine failures with its new V4 design during pre-season testing, but it marked the first time it faced such a problem during a race weekend this year.

Quartararo, who was running well outside the points in 16th when his engine let go, said he was struggling from the very beginning of the sprint.

“Right from the start, I nearly stalled. I felt something odd,” he explained.

“Then, on the straight, I could feel the engine’s performance starting to drop. It happened to me in Thailand. So it was the same feeling. So, I knew that at some point, it was going to blow up.” 

Fabio Quartararo's bike goes kaput 💨#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/ifWYm9c4gN

As a Rank D manufacturer under the concession system, Yamaha is allowed to use up to 10 engines per rider this season, two more than most of its rivals. 

Asked whether the engine he raced on Saturday was an older unit, Quartararo replied: “To be honest, I don't know how many engines we have, but I think we don’t have so many left.

“So I don't know if it was used or not. But I hope it was a high-mileage engine.”

On one of his weakest tracks on the calendar, Quartararo qualified in 17th place, over a second off the best time in Q1. 

But while other Yamaha riders were immediately on the move at the start, with Jack Miller going on to finish 10th, Quartararo lost time early on due to a problem with his rear ride-height device.

He had made little progress by the time his engine failed just before the halfway point of the race, bringing his day to a premature end.

The Iwata-based manufacturer also brought several new parts to Aragon, including a new chassis, but Quartararo wasn’t impressed with the new package. 

“All weekend, the bike was really slow,” he said. “We had to test a lot of things during the weekend. So I jumped one bike, one another and it was more about testing than trying to find performance this weekend.”

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