Movistar Yamaha Progress on Thailand Test Day Two

Maverick Viñales

Today the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team have wrapped up the second day of testing at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand. Riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales spent the available time fine-tuning their bikes’ settings and finished in 4th and 14th place respectively in the combined timesheets.

Similar to yesterday, Viñales left pit lane early for his first run, determined to improve on the time he set yesterday aboard his YZR-M1, and to collect useful data in preparation for the forthcoming season.

The young Spaniard worked hard all day, riding a total of 90 laps, as he tweaked the set-up and tested two different Michelin tyre specifications. He had a bit of a breakthrough in the final half hour of the session and set a 1’30.274s on lap 84. His efforts put him in fourth place in both today’s and the combined rankings, 0.305s from the top.

Rossi breached into the top-10 quickly after heading out on track this morning. He set his fastest lap of the day with a 1’30.888s on lap 22, before he returned to the order of the day: establishing a good balance for his bike.

Like his teammate, the Doctor put in a serious effort, riding 65 laps in total, to compare different tyre specifications as well as some electronics and setting amendments. Though he was unable to find a set-up that worked well enough to better the time he set earlier, he still ended in 14th place in the Day 2 rankings, 0.919s from first.

Maverick Viñales

Position: 4th – Time: 1’30.274 – Laps: 90

“It took us a bit of time to understand how to run the bike here. In the afternoon I started to feel good and was able to ride with a good pace. We changed some things at the last moment and it seemed to be an improvement, so maybe that’s the direction we should continue to follow tomorrow – we want to confirm it. I followed my own feelings and created my own set-up and that’s what made me feel good – when I have my bike and I can ride it with my own riding style. Tomorrow we will check the setting and we have to improve the rhythm. I think we made an incredible step in the afternoon and riding consistent 1’30s is the most important. We also tried two different tyre specs today and tomorrow we’ll do the other two and we will see.”

Valentino Rossi

Position: 14th – Time: 1’30.888 – Laps: 65

“It was a tough day. We started quite well this morning, I did some good lap times, and after we had some work to do and some new things to try. Sincerely, I didn’t like it a lot. We tried some different things for the electronics and also the setting, but unfortunately we didn’t find an improvement. We also had to do a bit of work for Michelin. They wanted us to try some other rear tyres. We have to stay concentrated and follow a different way tomorrow.”

Massimo Meregali

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – Team Director

“It was another day of hard work for us. We tried many things to improve the riders’ feeling on the bike. They each worked in their own direction. Maverick found something at the end of the day that seems to allow him to ride the bike the way he prefers. Tomorrow we will test if this change is indeed the way forward. Valentino also tried several setting variations, but none of them were an improvement, so tomorrow we’ll approach the issues differently. The riders also tried some of the four rear tyre specifications that Michelin brought here to test. We have still one more day of testing to complete, so we will see what the riders’ verdict is tomorrow.”

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