Fabio Quartararo will sit out the remainder of MotoGP’s Sepang pre-season test after breaking a finger in a crash on Tuesday.
Just an hour into the start of collective testing in Malaysia, Quartararo went down at Turn 5 on his V4-powered Yamaha M1 and had to be taken to the medical centre for checks.
Although he was initially released with only arm soreness and even returned to the track in the afternoon, the Frenchman later revealed he had fractured the middle finger on his right hand.
The 26-year-old will skip the final two days of the Sepang test to return home and begin his recovery.
“The arm is a bit sore, but the finger is broken, so we decided to stop the next two days of tests. I think it’s the best,” he said during the official MotoGP feed. “Of course, if it was a race weekend, I could follow, but there is no sense to make two more days.”
Speaking to media including Autosport, he added: “This one is pretty broken, so we’ll do a check-up tomorrow or the day after tomorrow in Barcelona.
“I lost the front pretty early, so pretty fast. The impact was big, but then it was the amount of laps I did in the gravel. I was beaten. I didn’t get knocked out, but luckily it’s just a few things.”
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Oriol Puigdemont
It remains unclear whether Quartararo will require surgery or how long he will be sidelined, but the injury will inevitably disrupt his preparations for the new season.
However, he had already logged important mileage on the new-for-2026 M1 during last week’s Sepang shakedown. Yamaha’s Group D concession status allowed its race riders additional track time compared to its rivals.
“We already tested everything that we had to test. Of course, two days more would have been great for electronics and mapping, but I think we did more than enough. So I prefer to recover and be ready for the real [thing],” he said.
Despite breaking his finger on Tuesday morning, Quartararo managed to complete 14 laps at Sepang in the afternoon session, setting a best time of 1m57.869s to end up ninth. He was the fastest Yamaha rider in the field, five spots ahead of Jack Miller on the Pramac Yamaha.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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