Viñales wanted to be calm after a first day of testing in Qatar which did not really reassure the Yamaha's form. The brand is thus largely absent from a top 5 where we find all its other competitors, starting with Aprilia, at the top of the ranking with Aleix Espargaró. It is Morbidelli, seventh, who is the best in M1, with last year's model. Viñales, now the eldest in the official box struck by tuning forks, is ninth, more than half a second behind. But the Spaniard assures: everything is fine...
The fourth Yamaha cannot boast of a good overall result at the end of the first day of testing in Qatar. Morbidely is seventh, Casa Particular in Viñales ninth while the other two drivers in M1 are absent from the top 10 since Quarterly is fifteenth behind Red ...Should we already be worried about Iwata's brand? This is not what the Spaniard feels: “ It's good to get back on track and ride motorcycles » he said after completing 51 laps. “ I focused on finding rhythm, we didn't try anything specific. So far the sentiment is positive, but it's still very early and testing is just beginning. We will continue to work. In the next few days we will do many more laps to try to be faster ».
So it was a simple warm-up…” At first I just tried to get into the rhythm with the 2020 bike. It felt good. I was immediately in 1'55, I was quite surprised » he adds. “ We tried very general things, nothing really specific. The feeling is positive, we must now continue to work “, continued the 26-year-old future father. “ We still have to see what we will test on Sunday, but in my opinion, Saturday was a very positive day ».
Vinales: “we need a lot more rounds”
It is not yet possible to say whether the desired progress has been made on the Yamaha M1 for the 2021 season. Casa Particular in Viñales said : " we need a lot more laps for this and we need to work on the settings. The trail was different than we expected. So we need a lot more laps before we can decide which parts to put on the bike. But we now have two days to test everything, in a completely impartial manner, without already drawing any conclusions. Because after that we have three days to draw conclusions ».
So we'll take our time at Yamaha to make decisive choices for a season MotoGP where you can’t make a mistake…” So it is very important for us to test all the parts during these two days ", said Casa Particular in Viñales. " Then we will draw conclusions and decide what to add to the bike so that we can go faster ».
Work will continue this Sunday, the last day of the first series of tests. The second and last will take place from March 10 to 12s. It will be recalled that before Qatar, Yamaha had not made the slightest spin on his M1s, unlike his adversaries, Suzuki except… Yamaha also has three test drivers out of three M1s competing for these tests, one of which is Cal Crutchlow.
MotoGP Test Qatar 1 J1: times
