Marco Bezzecchi
Fabio Quartararo has been immense over the last few rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season and reminded everyone of his talents.
The 2021 champion looked very promising in pre-season, as Yamaha were rapid at the Sepang test before struggling in the first part of the campaign.
Slowly but surely, Quartararo has come into his own and ended a three-year streak without a front row start in Qatar.
He followed it up with an even better performance at one of his best tracks, taking pole and claiming second place during the race at the Grand Prix of Spain.
Quartararo crashed at the Spanish Grand Prix, but more than made up for his error in the sprint by fending off the challenge of Francesco Bagnaia on Sunday.
Over at Yamaha, the other riders noticed Quartararo’s ‘special’ feat to secure pole, as he commanded the front of his bike brilliantly.
Yamaha ‘changed’ their 2025 MotoGP engine to unlock ‘special’ Fabio Quartararo
With Quartararo now sitting sixth in the riders’ standings with 50 points after five races, and the Japanese manufacturer second in the constructors’ championship, things are looking far more rosy than they did in 2024.
If the Frenchman can replicate his Jerez success, he stands a chance of taking a first victory since 2022 as well.
His pace is borne through changes the team made to his engine, which David Emmett revealed had helped to unlock a new level of performance from their superstar rider.
“I asked someone who is close to Yamaha about the situation with the bike, and they told me that, first of all, this is Fabio [Quartararo],” he said.
“Fabio is special, this is what Fabio is doing. The other thing he told me is they’ve changed the way that their approach to the engine if you’d like.
“‘We gave away a little bit of power, for a little bit more driveability.’ The thing has got more traction, it accelerates better, it goes faster, and they’ve gained so much drive that way.”
READ MORE: Max Bartolini hints Alex Rins has dealt Yamaha a problem developing Fabio Quartararo’s MotoGP bike
Is Fabio Quartararo’s faith in Yamaha already showing signs of paying off?
Signing a contract extension to remain with Yamaha for another two years until the end of 2026 was seen as a risky move last year.
At the time, despite the concession system looming, they had the slowest bike and were really struggling at a lot of tracks.
It resulted in Quartararo’s worst season. With new regulations on the horizon, it might have made sense to go and ride a faster bike.
However, the team have invested heavily in catching up and it looks as though it may have paid off already.
Having Pramac as their satellite
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