Quartararo returns to Misano in the middle of a Sunday drought

Fabio Quartararo has not scored in a Sunday Grand Prix since finishing seventh at the Sachsenring.

At Silverstone he crossed the line 12th, but a 16-second penalty linked to missing valid front-tyre pressure data dropped him to 16th and out of the points. In Aragón he again finished outside the top 15.

Jack Miller was the best Yamaha there, while Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed as he tried to close on the top 10.

The contrast is especially striking for Quartararo because Misano is where he clinched the MotoGP title in 2021. Five years later, the issue is no longer the championship but whether Yamaha can give him a bike he can exploit across the full Sunday distance.

A strong grid position will not be enough if grip and pace deteriorate again. The weekend will also provide a direct comparison between the factory team and Pramac on a familiar circuit.

If Miller, Razgatlioglu or the other Yamahas are again stronger over race distance, it will add another clue about how each rider is currently extracting performance from the M1, without by itself separating bike limitations from rider adaptation.