The opening day of the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini proved to be one with both dry and wet conditions for PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, with Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizoso - in his debut for the team - ending the opening day of the SanMarinoGP 19th and 24th.
It was a steady start to FP1 for Rossi, who used the beginning of the session to investigate track conditions. With heavy rain falling in the final 15 minutes, he opted not to head back out and ended FP1 19th, with a 1min 33.791secs lap. The rain resumed just before the start of FP2, preventing anyone from improving upon their times from the morning. After sitting as high as tenth at one point, Valentino ended FP2 16th with a 1min 44.130secs lap and was 19th overall.
Making his return to MotoGP after nearly ten months away, Dovizioso spent the majority of FP1 acclimatising to his Yamaha machinery. Like Rossi, he opted not to go out in the rain and, with a 1min 35.211secs lap, ended the session 24th. With unpredictable weather forecast for the rest of the weekend, the Italian was able to rack up some important laps in the wet conditions of FP2, setting a best time of 1min 44.530secs. Andrea ended the session 21st but, with no improvement on his dry FP1 time, was 24th overall.
FP3 for Rossi and Dovizioso will get underway at 9.55am local time (3.55pm MYT) tomorrow, with the first of the two MotoGP Qualifying sessions due to start at 2.10pm local time (8.10pm MYT).
