Reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo was left frustr♈ated after being unable to unlocཧk the full potential of his M1 Yamaha on day-one of the Qatar GP. 

After missing out on the top ten during FP1, Quartararo was eventually able to sneak a provisional Q2 spot thanks to his eighth place in FP2, however, the six👍-time race winner in 2021 couldn’t find a way of being ‘comfortable on one lap’ an area that has so often been a strength since joining MotoGP in 2019. 

Quartararo was not helped by a handlebar issue 🃏that occurred during one of his time attack efforts: "The system holding the mapping button was not tight. When I pushed to change the map ev𝐆erything went down,” said Quartararo. 

"So I put it back and I could continue because I didn’t need to change more mapping. I feel different and🏅 not so comfortable on one lap. 

"In the (pre-season) test I did not feel great but today I was missing something strange🦋. 

"I was fast in the first two sectors but we are miss🍷ing something and✅ we need to understand why for tomorrow because we are not safe for the Q2. We will need to see for a time attack in the morning."

With the competition looking extremely fast, in particular both Suzuki’s and Marc Marquez, Quartararo will nꦏeed t💯o find his best performance during Saturday’s qualifying, which in-turn means finding the limit of his 2022 machine, something he felt a long way away from achieving today.

Quartararo continued: "I felt much less on the limit but we are not on o๊ur ‘real’ limit. Today was tough because we didn’t understand a few things and we need to check data and with last year to understand what happened. 

"I don’t feel myself properly on the limit but because we struggled. It was a tough day but it was the first day here in Qatar and we normally have a te🌠st. 

"Today was tough and the top guys𓆉 were really fast."