Vinales was not destabilized by the absence of his teammate Valentino Rossi on this first day of testing, although he found himself alone to find the right settings for the new Yamaha chassis he has. The preliminary test session on the Misano circuit in which his team participated had this positive effect.
During the first morning session, Maverick achieved a modest eighth time, more than a second behind the leader Marc Marquez. The three Yamahas present ranked eighth, ninth and tenth, with a fall for Johann zarco. It should be noted that the Tech 3 team was not able to participate in the preliminary tests, only the official teams having been invited.
The afternoon was clearly more favorable to Vinales, whose time went from 1'34.592 in FP1 to 1'33.236 in FP2. This impressive improvement allowed him to occupy second position, only five thousandths of a second behind first Danilo Petrucci.
According to Maverick Vinales, who are " I feel good, because I did a lot of laps on the tires and that was the work I wanted to do, especially during FP2, to make the tires work for the full laps of the race.
“Honestly, I'm quite surprised that the pace is really good and I'm very happy with the way the bike worked. Still, we need to improve, because the lap times are not as fast as we thought we could do.
“I'm using the 2018 prototype chassis, because already when I tested in Misano I felt much more comfortable on the bike, which is really important for me, as a rider, to be 'in the flow". I will continue to use it until the end of the season, because it has been an improvement. »
According to the team manager Massimo Meregalli, “Today is a bit strange for us because we start the race weekend with just one driver. Nevertheless, we got off to a good start for the San Marino GP in the first two sessions.
“This morning, although Maverick was able to find a good pace, we suffered a bit of a lack of grip due to the condition of the track. In the afternoon the condition improved, we continued to work on the bike setup and Maverick was able to do a lot of laps on worn tires to prepare for the race and his feeling was good.
“He had the second fastest time, losing first place by just 0.005. It shows we have the speed, but we think we can improve the pace. There is still plenty of time for improvements and we are confident that we can achieve this tomorrow. »
Friday results:
1- Danilo Petrucci – OCTO Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP – 1’33.231
2- Maverick Vinales – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.005
3- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 0.063
4- Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda Team - Honda RC213V - + 0.115
5- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.244
6- Cal Crutchlow – LCR Honda – Honda RC213V – + 0.314
7- Michele Pirro – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 0.360
8- Jorge Lorenzo – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 0.383
9- Andrea Iannone – Team Suzuki ECSTAR – Suzuki GSX-RR – + 0.509
10- Tito Rabat – EG 0,0 Marc VDS – Honda RC213V – + 0.589
11- Aleix Espargaro – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – Aprilia RS-GP – + 0.601
12- Johann Zarco – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.683
13- Alvaro Bautista – Pull&Bear Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 0.706
14- Loris Baz – Reale Avintia Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 0.823
15- Hector Barbera – Reale Avintia Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 0.906
16- Scott Redding – OCTO Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 1.035
17- Jonas Folger – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.091
18- Jack Miller – EG 0,0 Marc VDS – Honda RC213V – + 1.180
19- Pol Espargaro – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – KTM RC16 – + 1.268
20- Karel Abraham – Pull&Bear Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP – + 1.447
21- Bradley Smith – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – KTM RC16 – + 1.611
22- Sam Lowes – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – Aprilia RS-GP – + 1.672
23- Alex Rins – Team Suzuki ECSTAR – Suzuki GSX-RR – + 1.821
Reference times:
Test record: 1'31.868 by Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) in 2016
Lap record: 1'32.979 by Dani Pedrosa (Honda) in 2016
Best top speed: 299,5 km/h for Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) in 2015
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 183 points
2 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 174
3 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 170
4 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 157
5 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 148
6 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 109
7 Jorge LORENZO-Ducati 90
8 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 89
9 Jonas FOLGER-Yamaha 77
10 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 75
…15 Loris BAZ-Ducati 39
