Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales had shown solid pace in the wet and the dry so far this weekend at the Automotodrom Brno, but during the mixed Q2 session they weren‘t able to get in the hot lap they had in mind. Qualifying started on a drying track, but rain towards the end thwarted the Yamaha men‘s plans. Rossi‘s late wet tyre gamble resulted in him taking seventh place, whilst Viñales was unlucky to get caught in the rain on slicks. He will line up beside his team-mate on the third row in ninth place.
Valentino Rossi
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team
“It was a very difficult day, especially for the qualifying. We always had half-and-half conditions and we wanted to try to use the slicks at the beginning, but the conditions weren’t good enough. Before my second run I saw a lot of people go out on slicks, but for me it was too wet. There was not enough time to put on slicks for us. These conditions are always difficult for us, we struggle very much, so starting from the third row is not so bad. I hope for a dry race tomorrow and also for a dry Warm Up, because we have a lot of things to try, especially to make the right tyre choice.”
Maverick Viñales
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team
“The slicks didn‘t work for us. I tried to go out on them, because I spotted the opportunity, but ultimately I think it was a bad decision. We should have followed our plan to go out on the medium wet tyre at the end, I think our position would have been much better, but it is what it is. You have to take the positives. It‘s been a great weekend, I‘m riding fast on the wet and dry, so we need to keep this positivity going for tomorrow. I start from P9, but normally I‘m starting good now and I‘m
Massimo Meregalli
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“We started the day well. Vale and Maverick both showed good pace in the wet FP3 and FP4, and yesterday they also felt good in the dry, so we felt positive going into Q2. However, the weather was not on our side. The track was drying in the first ten minutes of the session, but then rain started to fall, making the tyre choice a catch-22 situation and the timing critical. Ultimately, wets were the better choice towards the end of the session, so Vale managed to move up to seventh on his last lap, whilst Maverick was unlucky not to be able to improve on his
