Movistar Yamaha Begin Action in Barcelona

Below is a report from Yamaha racing regarding FP1 and FP2 for the next round of the Moto GP at Barcelona.

Just five days after the race at the Mugello Circuit, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Viñales was back on the asphalt today for the first free practice sessions ahead of this weekend's Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya. The Catalan Grand Prix started with a waiting game for Viñales, who sat out most of the session as the track dried. Once the damp patches had disappeared, the home boy quickly stepped aboard his YZR-M1 and made his six laps in total count to secure sixth place, with a 146.824s best lap.

The changing conditions as the day progressed saw the Spaniard needing a couple of stints before finding a good base setting in FP2 to work on throughout the remainder of the weekend. Though his afternoon outing was primarily spent on a search for grip, he set a 1‘45.810s lap towards the end of the session. As all riders had quickened their pace compared to this morning, Viñales took 16th position in today’s timesheets.

Maverick Viñales

Position: 16th - Time: 1'45.810 - Laps: 17

This morning I was feeling OK, the bike was working good. We went out on soft tyres and the bike was behaving really well. We did three or four laps that were OK and I wasn‘t far from the top, but it wasn’t the same in the afternoon and I don’t know why. We usually have a very stable bike, but it wasn’t working well. Every time I went on the track, on a new tyre or a used one, I was sliding a lot and couldn’t do anything about it, it was something very strange, it’s difficult to say anything about it. Concerning the new layout, you have to take the right line. The left-right is something all the tracks have, slow corners. For sure the 2016 version was a much nicer layout, but for the circuit it needs to be like this so it’s better for everyone.

The damp conditions in this morning’s free practice session were a little disappointing because we lost some valuable testing time, considering that we didn’t come here to test two weeks ago, as opposed to our rivals. The last part of the track has been modified compared to last year, but it's not safer nor does it increase the level of MotoGP action and in general the condition of the track has also degraded. we weren’t expecting to face the difficulties that we experienced in FP2 with Maverick, but we are confident that we will fix it for tomorrow. Tonight, we will work to find further solutions which we will put to the test in FP3.

Image source: Yamaha racing