Franco Morbidelli was delighted with his career best qualifying performance, qualifying in second place, behind his Petronas SRT Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo in Jerez.

The Italian was tied neck and neck with his team-mate through the first three sectors of the lap, only to fall of slightly, securing a famous 1-2 for SRT in just their fourth race of existence.

Morbidelli explained that he was not only very happy with his career best MotoGP qualifying position, but also for his team, whom he said ‘deserves these kinds of results’.

“Great day for us, we were both super fast,” said the 24-year-old.

“Fabio was able to be fast since the very beginning of the weekend, where I had to chase a little bit, but finally in qualifying we managed to get closer and closer, and I’m just happy.

“As I said, the team deserves these kinds of results. They work very well, the team is made by great people, so we [he and Quartararo] feel great inside the team, we feel that there is a lot of passion and energy around us, and this is the demonstration.”

Jerez has been a tough circuit for Yamaha in recent years, with the factory bikes especially struggling with a lack of grip when the temperatures are higher. When asked about this, Morbidelli said the conditions today were more favourable, but not helpful when it comes to judging chances in the increased temperatures.

“Today was quite cold and overcast,” he said. “So the weather was not what we will face tomorrow, so this is a question mark for us.

“We will have to see what the weather is like tomorrow and we will have to react.”