MotoGP - Yamaha Continue Development on Damp Sepang Track
Yamaha MotoGP riders Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi carried out their testing programme in a positive fashion today. Despite challenging track conditions, the teammates took second and fourth place respectively in the time sheets on the second day of testing at the Sepang International Circuit whilst working their way through a list of new items.
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi were back in action today at the Sepang International Circuit for the second of the three track days that mark the start of 2017 MotoGP racing activity. They continued to work through a number of different testing materials, taking second and fourth place respectively in today's time sheets.
The riders had to be patient at the start of the eight-hour session. Damp track conditions made for a four-hour wait before they could put their 2017 Yamaha YZR-M1s to the test.
Once the track had dried sufficiently, Viñales was keen to head out and continued his hunt for the perfect set-up. He soon found a good rhythm and he comfortably began to chip away at his time. After one and a half hours he posted a best lap of 2.00.646s to temporarily take over the top of the standings before the pace of the other riders picked up.
In the meantime, the young Spaniard proceeded to test the new fairing in order to be able to compare data with his teammate, but couldn't resist to push on his final stint. Maverick Viñales was one of only two riders to drop under the 2.00 mark with, a 1.59.858s and ended the day in second place, 0.406s from the front.
Valentino Rossi was also eager to work on the bike set-up to improve performance and left pit lane as soon as the circuit was dry. As one of the first riders to venture out on track, he put in 54 laps, which he used to compare the new fairing to the old version.
With his physical condition improved from yesterday, he underlined that he was back on form by being one of the few riders to improve on his best time of the day before. At the very end of the session he put in a time attack to move up to fourth place in today's standings, with a fastest lap of 2.00.254s, 0.802s from first.
