Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi concluded the one-day Jerez MotoGP Official Test, finishing first and twenty-first in today’s session time sheets.
JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA (SPAIN), 8TH MAY 2017 – After a challenging outing yesterday, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team returned to the Circuito de Jerez today for an official MotoGP test. Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi spent the extra track time usefully, improving their YZR-M1s settings and assembling useful data for the rest of the season. The duo finished in first and twenty-first place respectively in the session times.
Aside from trying out a new spec front tyre that Michelin brought for the MotoGP field to test, the Yamaha Factory Racing riders also evaluated a new chassis.
Viñales showed his eagerness to make another step forward this morning, as he headed out onto the track to put in 84 laps in total. Back in his pre-season testing groove, it only took him three laps to take over the top spot in the time sheets. Once he got a feel for the conditions it was time to focus on improving the set-up of his YZR-M1. He started the morning stint riding the bike with exactly the same set-up as yesterday during the race and it wasn’t long until he further improved to a 1’38.635s. His time remained unbeaten for the rest of the day and he finished 0.002s ahead of his closest rival.
Teammate Rossi had a productive day in Jerez. Though he started the test with caution, he steadily booked progress as he worked on fine-tuning his bike’s setting compared to yesterday. Rather than putting in a hot lap, he spent most of the session testing small details of the set-up he hadn’t been able to try during the Spanish GP weekend, due to a shortened amount of dry track time when rain dampened the Friday free practice sessions. After completing 62 laps in the blistering sunshine, he ended the day in twenty-first place with a fastest lap of 1’40.463s, 1.828s off his teammate’s time.
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP will analyse the gained data in preparation for the Grand Prix de France, to be held at the Le Mans Bugatti Grand Prix race circuit in two weeks’ time.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
TEAM DIRECTOR
It was important to have the possibility to stay here for some testing after yesterday’s race. We had the opportunity to test an updated frame with both riders as well as the new front tyre that Michelin brought. The new frame had some positive points, though there are some areas that we can still improve. While Valentino was working on different bike set-ups, Maverick went out on a bike with the same set-up and tyres, when the temperature was exactly the same as yesterday during the race. He did half a race simulation and the pace was faster than yesterday. During these laps, the feeling of the bike was that it worked as we expected it to work during the race. We will now analyse all the data that we collected today and yesterday to try to understand what the culprit was. We are looking forward to the next round at the Le Mans circuit in two weeks’ time!
MAVERICK VIÑALES
MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP RIDER
During the Jerez test we tested different things on the bike. The new chassis works quite well. We compared the same set-up from yesterday with the same tyres, to see if it was working good. Today we had a totally different result compared to yesterday, we had a really good pace. Anyway, we have to start looking forward to Le Mans, because I think that will be a good track for us, especially with my riding style, and we can do a really good job. There were positive and negative points when testing the new chassis, we have to check and analyse and then we will see. I tried the different style front tyre and I feel good with nearly all the tyres, so for me it’s alright. If they want to go back to the old compounds, for me it’s going to be OK.
VALENTINO ROSSI
MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP RIDER
We tried something different with the setting, but unfortunately it didn’t work in the race. Today’s results we’re trying a more normal setting, unfortunately the new stuff, also the new chassis, doesn’t work better. In this test we tried some different things and I think that we understand something important to fix the problem for the future. I tried the harder carcass tyre and for me it didn’t make a big difference, but I prefer the one with the harder carcass.
