Vinales and Rossi Top First 2017 MotoGP IRTA Testing Day in Valencia

2016-11-15 16:10
The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team had a positive first day of testing at the Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo. Today‘s seven-hour long session gave Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi the chance to make their first steps in preparing for the 2017 MotoGP season.

Though the main goal of today‘s outing for Viñales was to get a feel for his new bike, he didn‘t waste time to make a statement. The Spaniard started his test around eleven o‘clock and only took half an hour to ride to second place and continued to be in the top six throughout his morning run. He kept the momentum going during his afternoon stint and showed his confidence posting a 1‘30.930s on lap 55 to take over first place from Rossi. The 21-year-old completed 61 laps in total and wrapped up the day of testing leading the way.

Rossi had a mixed but ultimately successful day of testing. He was quickly on the pace in the morning on his 2016 bike and topped the standings after his 11th lap, clocking a 1‘30.950s, which was only bettered by Viñales later in the afternoon when the temperatures rose. Despite suffering a crash on lap 32 in turn 10, he walked away unharmed and started the Valencia test with a positive feeling overall. The Italian spent his afternoon session preparing for next year‘s season. He completed 47 laps in total and finished in second place in today‘s testing results, just 0.020s off the front.

Tomorrow Movistar Yamaha MotoGP will be back at the Ricardo Tormo track to continue their testing programme.



The extended imagery from today's test session at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit (Valencia, Spain) is available on
www.yamahamotogp.com
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MASSIMO MEREGALLI

MASSIMO MEREGALLI
TEAM DIRECTOR


Today has been a momentous occasion and a promising start to the first pre-season MotoGP IRTA test. Maverick made his first kilometres on the Yamaha and, just like we expected, he has taken to the bike very well. He used today just to get a feel for the YZR-M1. Valentino was very quick this morning on his 2016 bike. It was unfortunate that his crash on the bike with the 2017 frame lost us some time, because the damage was quite substantial, but the main thing is that Vale is OK. Later in the afternoon he resumed his testing plan and the feedback we got from him is very clear, so overall we are satisfied with how the test has started and with our progress so far.






VALENTINO ROSSI

VALENTINO ROSSI


It was a positive day, because I‘m second and the lap time was not so bad, but I did it with the old bike. With the new chassis the first feeling was OK, but after unfortunately I crashed because I put the hard tyre on the front, which on the right side doesn‘t give enough grip for our bike. I damaged the bike and I didn‘t have enough time to try it again, so now the guys are working and I will try the new chassis some other time tomorrow and we will see.





LINKS & DOWNLOAD


Session for VAL MotoGP TEST Day 1 (Courtesy of Dorna)
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Nome gp


TEST DAY 1 - RESULTS
15/11/2016



1. M. VINALES MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 1'30.930

2. V. ROSSI MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 1'30.950

3. J. LORENZO DUCATI TEAM 1'31.052

4. M. MARQUEZ REPSOL HONDA TEAM 1'31.102

5. A. DOVIZIOSO DUCATI TEAM 1'31.131

6. C. CRUTCHLOW LCR HONDA 1'31.156

7. A. IANNONE TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 1'31.165

8. S. REDDING OCTO PRAMAC YAKHNICH 1'31.242

9. H. BARBERA AVINTIA RACING 1'31.286

10. D. PEDROSA REPSOL HONDA TEAM 1'31.306

11. J. MILLER MARC VDS RACING TEAM 1'31.477

12. A. BAUTISTA PULL & BEAR ASPAR TEAM 1'31.674

13. M. PIRRO OCTO PRAMAC YAKHNICH 1'32.068

14. A. ESPARGARÒ APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 1'32.177

15. L. BAZ AVINTIA RACING 1'32.315

16. J. FOLGER MONSTER YAMAHA TECH3 1'32.450

17. J. ZARCO MONSTER YAMAHA TECH3 1'32.462

18. T. RABAT ESTRELLA GALICIA 0,0 MARC VDS 1'32.578

19. P. ESPARGARÒ RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 1'32.613

20. B. SMITH RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING<

Source: Yamaha Motor Racing

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