Fabio Quartararo called it foolish for the MotoGP riders to overlook Motegi’s hard rear tyre. Almost everyone had run the soft compound in Saturday’s Sprint, but it suffered damage through its central section as overheating caused blistering. The tyre was therefore removed from the allocation before Sunday’s Grand Prix.

That left the medium and hard rear tyres for the race. Michelin described the medium as risky after the Sprint, while the hard had been treated cautiously before the weekend. Riders tried it in Warm Up and every rider then chose it for the race. Quartararo said the earlier decision not to consider it properly had been a mistake, especially after it proved to be the effective race option.

Less movement and more usable power

The Monster Energy Yamaha rider also thought the hard rear tyre might have been the better choice for the time attack. With the soft compound, the bike was pumping heavily on the exits of some corners. The hard reduced that movement, and Quartararo believed the added stability could have allowed him to use more power. The weekend consequently changed the picture around a tyre that had initially received little attention from the field.

Fuel restriction from lap seven

The tyre decision was only part of Quartararo’s difficulty. The Yamaha rider said a fuel problem began from lap seven. He had to restrict throttle opening to 70% between turns two and three, on the back straight and on the main straight in order to manage the situation through the race.

Quartararo said he had the pace to go faster, but could not use it while constantly managing the throttle. The problem was still present when he was in Brad Binder’s slipstream and became worse without that assistance. He had also suffered an unexpected fuel problem at Misano a few weeks earlier, adding another consumption issue to his Japanese Grand Prix weekend.