Movistar Yamaha Start Spanish Showdown in Valencia
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13/11/2017
Free practice
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Valentino Rossi slowly turned up the heat at the first free practice sessions of the Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana. As the temperatures rose, Both Movistar Yamaha riders
upped their speed to secure 11th and 12th place respectively in the combined free practice timesheets.
It was a busy first day at the Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana - Ricardo Tormo for Rossi. For the nine-time World Champion, the goal in the morning session was to find a solid base setting, one he could develop further throughout the weekend. Whilst working his way through various setting options, he set a time of 1'32.538s to finish in 18th position, 1.493s behind the leader.
In the afternoon, the Doctor wasted no time to pick up where he left off in the morning. He was eager to get out on track and briefly led the way, before continuing to fine-tune his bike's setting. As the times dropped towards the end of the session, he responded by bettering his fastest lap to 1'31.488s for ninth, but just missed out on a place inside the top-10 overall. He finished the day in 11th place in the combined results, 0.848s from first.
Valentino Rossi
Position: 11th - Time: 1'31.488 - Laps: 45
"It was a difficult day, especially this morning, because I didn't feel good with the bike, but in the afternoon we improved the feeling and the setting. In the end, though I wasn't fantastic, I was also not so bad, my speed was quite good. Here in Valencia it's always difficult, because the grip is very low. During the whole season we suffered a lot in these types of conditions, so we have a lot to work on."
Massimo Meregalli
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - Team Director
"The first day didn't quite go to plan. Even though we tried different set-ups on both sides of the garage, we haven't been able to improve as much as we wanted to. However, we were still able to compare different tyre specifications and got some good information for when we make the tyre choice for the race. It's really important for tomorrow's session that we find what didn't work today, so we can improve.
