Yamaha pins hopes on new asphalt, parts at 'tough' Aragon MotoGP

Monster Yamaha suffered its worst weekend of the 2024 MotoGP season in Austria, failing to score a point with Fabio Quartararo or Alex Rins in either the Sprint or Grand Prix.

It was the first time Yamaha has been left pointless this year, while being beaten by Honda for only the second time this season.

Yamaha now hopes that increased grip from a resurfaced Aragon plus new parts from the private Misano test will help their chances of being more competitive in Alcaniz this weekend.

Yamaha finished 1-3 at the track with then Petronas riders Franco Morbidelli and Quartararo in 2020.

But the Frenchman was only eighth at Aragon in his title-winning 2021 campaign, then crashed out after tangling with Marc Marquez on the opening lap of the most recent 2022 round.

That race ended without any Yamaha riders in the top 13.

“Aragon is a nice track with a nice layout, but in recent years it's been a tough one for us,” admitted team director Massimo Meregalli.

“The track has been completely resurfaced since we were last here. We hope that this new tarmac will provide us with good grip and that it will aide our performance.

“Moreover, this weekend we will bring new items that were tested and approved by the riders at our private Misano test last week.

“We will try to maximise what we get out of this GP: we want to get the best results possible as well as collect data.”

‘If someone [has] some grip to sell, let me know!’

Quartararo, whose best Aragon MotoGP result is a fifth place in his rookie 2019 season, called the latest M1 updates a ‘small improvement’.

“We had the opportunity to try some new things at the private Misano test. At the test we noticed that the new items give us a small improvement,” said the #20, who joked on social media after the Misano test: ‘If someone [has] some grip to sell, let me know!’

“This weekend we'll have another chance to try these items, but this time in a race-weekend setting. Aragon is usually not an easy circuit for me, but I'm curious to see if the new asphalt will help,” he added.

Home Spanish star Rins is a former Aragon winner in Moto3 and MotoGP but will be facing the track for the first time as a Yamaha rider.

“Despite some rain, we made good use of the private Misano test. I liked some of the new items, so we brought them to Aragon, and we enter this GP with a positive mindset,” he said.

“I like the Aragon track – it's a circuit I've done well at in the past. Now that the track has been resurfaced, it will hopefully improve the grip levels, which could benefit us.”