Movistar Yamaha Build Momentum as Brno Begins

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Viñales persevered through a wet first free practice and a dry afternoon session today at the fast and flowing Automotodrom Brno. Despite the great diversity in conditions, Vinales made some fundamental first steps in preparation for this weekend's Monster EnergyGrand Prix Ceské republiky and secured 11th place place respectively in the combined timesheets.

Viñales needed a bit of time in FP1 to get a feel for the damp conditions at the start of the Czech Grand Prix weekend. However, the Spaniard soon started chipping away at his best time and gradually upped his pace. He was 0.644s off the fastest time by the end of the session and wrapped up the morning practice in sixth place with a best lap of 2'05.845s.

The young gun had to start from zero again in the afternoon as track conditions had changed from full wet to dry. He waited at the start of FP2 and closely watched his competition out on track, in order to assess when the right time would be to bring out the slick tyres. Ten minutes into the session, he headed out and worked his way up to 11th place, with a 1'57.289s best lap, 0.957s from first. 

Maverick Viñales

Position: 11th - Time: 1'57.289 - Laps: 27

"This morning was a good session. I feel quite good on the wet, though there are still some parts to improve, but honestly, I was feeling quite comfortable on the bike. This afternoon was really difficult, I never felt like that on the Yamaha before, so we have to understand which area is the problem. We need to solve these issues and try to work even harder. We really don’t know which area is causing the problem, if we knew we would improve it. The bike is not working at its 100% and we have to try to find out why."

Massimo Meregalli

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - Team Director

"After four weeks of no riding whatsoever for our team, we dedicated today’s sessions to giving our riders a good feeling. The conditions of the track changed considerably from the morning session to this afternoon’s free practice. In the morning, both riders were quite satisfied about the feeling in the wet. This afternoon we had to start from scratch again. Maverick wasn’t satisfied about the turning of the bike and he couldn’t brake as hard as he wanted. Considering that it might rain on Sunday, today we were lucky that we had the possibility to spend an entire practice session in wet conditions. For tomorrow, we definitely have to improve the balance of the bikes of both riders to prepare for qualifying, that’s always fundamental for the results of the race."