The 2021 world champion anticipated a more durable weekend at Phillip Island per week on from his podium return on the Indonesian GP.
However Quartararo might solely handle seventeenth after Friday’s running with a 1m28.937s, having ended final yr’s second apply at Phillip Island in fourth with a 1m29.6s lap.
This has left Quartararo fully baffled, with the Frenchman admitting he has “no probability” of progressing into Q2 on Saturday morning in qualifying.
Requested the place he’s struggling, he mentioned: “Our bike is getting tougher to show yearly.
“I feel we lose rather a lot from 2019 to now. That was our robust level, now it’s clearly our weak level.
“That’s the one factor we actually had, and you’ll clearly see… I’m one second away from the highest guys, my team-mate can also be struggling… actually obscure what is going on proper now.
“A lot worse [than last year]. Final yr I certified P5, two tenths off, however every single day final yr we improved rather a lot as a result of the situations improved.
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Manufacturing unit Racing
“Proper now the lap time in comparison with final yr… I feel I used to be P4 [in practice two], 1m29.4s.
“Now I’m half a second quicker and I’m seventeenth. That is loopy, additionally everyone seems to be pushing far more however I used to be clearly on the restrict to make 1m28.9s. It’s a bit of bit unusual for this lap time.”
Quartararo added that it’s “obscure” the inconsistent type of the Yamaha, having gone from a frontrunner in Indonesia to struggling per week later in Australia.
“I knew at Indonesia that I might struggle for the rostrum simply due to the tyre,” he mentioned in response to a query from Autosport.
“The carcass was completely different and we knew it was one thing good for us. Right here, we knew it will be tougher however not as troublesome as it’s now.
“The tyre just isn’t a lot affecting us, quite it’s affecting the others in a Positive method. Sadly we can’t be constant for that.
“It was precisely the identical in India and Japan. In India I used to be combating Jorge [Martin] till the final lap, however [in Japan] he was a second quicker than me.
“Then in Mandalika, I used to be one of many quickest, and right here I’m seventeenth. It’s obscure the best way of how we’re using and why the place is that a lot completely different.”