Fabio Quartararo was at a loss to explain his poor form after finishing third-slowest in Malaysian Grand Prix practice, admitting he had “not struggled so much at Sepang in a long time”.

The 2021 MotoGP champion was seen running wide several times in the afternoon session on Friday, as he battled with his Yamaha M1 around the high-speed 5.4km circuit

The issues left Quartararo visibly agitated, with TV images capturing him almost punching the fuel tank as he headed back to the pits.

The Frenchman eventually finished the day 1.6s off the outright pace in 19th place, only ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu’s stand-in Augusto Fernandez and injured Aprilia rider Jorge Martin in a 21-bike field. The gap to his team-mate Alex Rins, who was Yamaha’s top runner in 14th, stood at half a second.

Asked to assess his performance at Sepang, where the track surface has come under heavy criticism, Quartararo said: “Looking at the lap time, almost everybody went faster than last year in the practice. So, I don't think it's much worse. 

“I felt completely worse. I don't know if it's a setting or something that was tough, but I didn't feel great at all.”

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Qian Jun / MB Media / Getty Images

Asked why he felt so angry on the bike, Quartararo replied: “Just a frustrating day, I would say, in general."

Pressed whether his frustration stemmed from a lack of speed or potential bike problems, he added: “A bit of everything. I felt really, really bad today. I could not push in any way to be fast and try to perform.

“That is something that I tried to improve during the practice, during this morning. But it has been a long time that I was not struggling that much on this track.”

Quartararo enjoyed a strong weekend in Malaysia last year, qualifying on the second row of the grid before finishing fifth in both races. At the time, he was running Yamaha’s previous-generation inline-four engine, which has since been replaced by a new V4 unit.