There were no victories for Fabio Quartararo in 2025, but he proved his value to Yamaha in other areas.

Quartararo’s winless streak – and Yamaha’s for that matter – continues to stretch back to the German Grand Prix in 2022, and he was on the podium only once in a grand prix in the season just gone.

Despite the lack of Sunday success, however, Saturday mornings in 2025 proved better for Quartararo and Yamaha than they have been since the beginning of 2022, with the Frenchman taking five pole positions this year. That’s the same amount as Marco Bezzecchi, and more than all other riders bar Marc Marquez.

It was a target for Yamaha to improve over one lap, having struggled in that aspect in recent years, but it was clearly Quartararo who was best able to exploit the technical improvements made in terms of one-lap speed.

“During the winter time, the goal was to get closer [on] a fast lap,” Yamaha MotoGP Technical Director Max Bartolini told MotoGP.com.

With five pole positions by Fabio Quartararo, this seems to be a goal achieved, although Bartolini insisted there is still margin to improve further in this aspect.

“He [Quartararo] grew up in Yamaha, so he knows the positive and negative character of the bike,” Bartolini said.

“He’s very good to interpret the bike and understand the limit of this bike. 

“Also Jack [Miller] made some really good fast laps, so this I think was the improvement that we had. 

“For sure, still not enough because we should be more constantly on the first two or three rows.”

Michelin Two-Wheel Motorsport Manager Piero Taramasso added that the improvement for Yamaha came from being able to put more energy through the tyres, and that Quartararo as a rider is well-suited to this demand.

“In the past, the problem was that they [Yamaha] cannot put a lot of energy straight away, they cannot heat the tyre,” Taramasso told MotoGP.com.

“Now they improved that, and Fabio is very strong to do that because he’s very aggressive, he’s braking very hard, so in this way the weight of the bike is going into the front tyre, the rear tyre. He makes enough temperature to get the grip.”