Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Work on Dry Set-Ups on Valencia GP Friday

13-11-2020

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Work on Dry Set-Ups on Valencia GP Friday

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi resumed work in this afternoon‘s FP2 session at the Ricardo Tormo track. They finished in 10th and 18th position respectively in the combined Friday free practice timesheets.

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi made further adjustments to their YZR-M1s‘ settings in the FP2 session ahead of Sunday‘s Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana. They ended a full-on Friday in 10th and 18th place respectively in the combined results.

Viñales continued to fine-tune his bike‘s set-up in the afternoon, eager to make sure he will be able to fight at the front of the pack in Sunday‘s race. In the final five minutes of the session, he made a quick visit to pit lane to then dash out and set a hot lap for a top-10 finish. Posting a 1‘31.062s on lap 22/22 was enough to secure tenth place in FP2, 0.440s from first but not in the Friday standings. However, his slightly faster 1‘30.968s lap from FP1 kept him in tenth in the combined FP rankings, 0.346s from the top.

Rossi also had a busy afternoon, getting his bike adjusted to the low grip levels of the Valencia circuit. The pace heated up in the final stages of FP2. The Doctor responded by improving on his FP1 time, clocking a 1‘31.371s on lap 19/24. But he wasn‘t able to secure a provisional spot for Q2, as less than 0.8s covered the first 19 riders. The Italian ended the day in 18th place in the FP2 and combined results, 0.749s from the top.

Maverick Viñales

"For me, the Friday has been very positive. We tested many things. As always, there were some positive and some negative things, but we worked on the hard tyre, simulating low grip, and I'm really happy about the feeling on the bike. But for some reason I didn't have an amazing feeling on the softs this afternoon. I couldn't go as fast on the softs as I could on the mediums, that's why I didn't improve my lap time. But overall I feel good. I have a good rhythm. Tomorrow it will be a very tight qualifying, and we will see. I think we have good potential. We just need to understand how to make the softs work for us."

Valentino Rossi

"My position is quite bad because I am behind, but we are all there. It's really close. I'm 0.7s from the top. I don't feel very good on the bike. I have a bit too much movement on entry, so I'm not able to bring enough speed, but it's just the first day. For tomorrow we will have to try something else, and we hope to be more competitive then, because in FP3 it will be crucial to stay in the top 10."

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director

"Returning to the Valencia track, we knew that its general characteristics aren't a perfect fit for us. We hadn‘t had much dry track time before, so it was crucial to make the most of it while we could and try many different setting and tyre options too. We know this will be another challenging weekend because Valencia is tricky for us. Still, overall, Maverick was quite comfortable on the bike today. However, he didn't feel the grip he was looking for when he put on the soft tyres in the end. So his FP2 times don't reflect his true potential. Valentino is not satisfied with the set-up of his bike yet. He has some movements on entry and this impeded his lap times today. We will try to find a solution this evening. Our goal for tomorrow is the same as always: we strive to have both riders in the top 10 at the end of FP3 to then get the best starting position possible in qualifying."