Fabio Quartararo ended this week’s MotoGP Sepang test third on🥀 the timesheets having set his best ever lap of the Sepang International Circuit.

The Frenchman had previously not broken the 1:57 barrierౠ at the Malaysian venue, but he was able to dip into the 1:56s – the onl♛y non-Ducati rider to do so – on the final day of this week’s test.

“Very happy,” Qu♛artararo said at the end of Friday in Sepanඣg.

“My fastest lap was qualifying last year was a 1:57.5, so I think the gap is moreꦕ than 0.8ꦉ 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 haಞppy.

“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 i♒s more or less the lap time that they did this year, so I think we can be pretty h♏appy.”

Quartaraꦐro’s enthusiasm about his one-lap speed was amplified by the context of 2024, in which qualifying was the mo༒st difficult part of the weekend for Yamaha.

“The worst last year was not the race,” Quartararo explained. “It was especially one lap last year that was the prob𝓡lem because always we started super-far [back] and it was super-difficult to overtake.

“Right now, before I made my first time at🅰tack, I knew I was going to make a 1:56, because with Maio [Massimo Meregalli, Monster Energy Yamaha team manager] we make the joke the first day we arrive here that we will make a 1:56, but every day we were getting closer and closer and in the end it was the reality today.

“But last year the ꦦproblem was that you put a new tyre and you𝔍 don’t know the lap time that you’re going to do.

“On one lap today, in𒆙 the past three days, it was really good.”

Fabio Quartararo explains Yamaha improvement

Quartar꧂aro put the improvement in performance down to a combination of his own riding style adjustments as well as technical updates to the YZR-M1.

“It looks similar but it’s not the same,” Quartararo said of the ✨2025 M1.

“Basically, it’s many electronics that have changed, the way I ride – we hꦕave newജ 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.”

Although the changes 🔥have improve🐓d Quartararo’s feeling in some areas of his riding, the key issue from recent years remains.

“We improved a lot our feeling going into the corners, on change of direction also💞,” the 2021 World Champion said.

“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.”

Overall, though, Quartararo clearly feels that his has been Yamaha’s best of𓄧f-season since he joined the factory team in 2021.

“I th🌌ink that every year, especially from 2022–2024, we make one step, but Ducati and the other♓s make two or three,” he said.

“I think this year we have re𒆙ached 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 o🐭thers improved; or we improved but the others even more. Now I think that the gap is closer.”

Stronger not only over one lap

Quartararo’s en💝thusiasm for the new Yamaha package was not limited to its one-lap performance, however.

The French rider was able to make a couple of runs of multiple laps in succession while showing pace only a couple 🥀of tenths away ꦦfrom that of the leading Ducatis.

“It was not really a Sprint simulation; I had to make six laps with one setting and six lꦅaps with another setting, with new tyres,” the French rider explained.

“It was good. I think we havℱe to consider that last year we were P11, P12 here, and now we are looking at the pace of Marc [Marquez], Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia], and Alex [Marquez] who are the fastest around here.

“So, I think the gap is quite big but I’m prett😼y happy about the lap time that we did, especially because it was not only on🐻e lap and that’s it.”