The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team returned to the scene of last weekend‘s San Marino GP, the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, for the first day of the two-day 2021 Official Misano MotoGP Test. With the Gran Premio dell‘Emilia Romagna coming up on 22-24 October at the same track, Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli used this opportunity to collect extra data. They secured 6th and 18th place respectively in the day timesheets in the process.
Today‘s track action was divided into two sessions. Session 1 was held from 9:30-13:00 and Session 2 took place from 14:00-18:00. However, due to rain overnight and in the morning, action was limited in the first session. Quartararo was one of only eight riders who braved the tricky track conditions. He went out to get some extra wet-weather practice in, setting the sixth fastest time with a 1‘45.748s, set on lap 9/13.
The Frenchman returned on track in the afternoon, motivated to also get some dry laps in during Session 2. He dedicated his time to evaluating a 2022 prototype YZR-M1, completing another 52 laps for a 65-laps total. His fastest time of the day, a 1‘31.980s, clocked on his very last lap, put him in sixth place in the Day 1 Misano Test rankings, 0.456s from first.
Morbidelli was keen to spend the available afternoon track time working on his feeling with the YZR-M1, as well as trying setting options and some other items. His sole purpose for today was to make more kilometres with the Factory bike and improve his race rhythm rather than focusing on the one-lap speed. Still recovering from his knee injury, which was slightly aggravated by last weekend‘s race, the Italian completed fewer laps than usual. He rode a total of 32 laps and set a 1‘32.653s on his 28th lap to finish the test in 18th place, 1.129s from the top.
