After a challenging outing in the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, Yamaha returned to the Circuito de Jerez on Monday for an official MotoGP test.
Maverick Viñales spent the extra track time usefully, improving his YZR-M1s settings and assembling useful data for the rest of the season. Aside from trying out a new spec front tyre that Michelin brought for the MotoGP field to test, the Yamaha Factory Racing rider also evaluated a new chassis.
Viñales showed his eagerness to make another step forward as he headed out onto the track to put in 84 laps in total. Back in his pre-season testing groove, it only took him three laps to take over the top spot in the time sheets.
Once he got a feel for the conditions it was time to focus on improving the set-up of his YZR-M1. He started the morning stint riding the bike with exactly the same set-up as Sunday during the race and it wasn't long until he further improved to a 1‘38.635s. His time remained unbeaten for the rest of the day and he finished 0.002s ahead of his closest rival.
“During the Jerez test we tested different things on the bike. The new chassis works quite well,” Maverick explained. “We compared the same set-up from yesterday with the same tyres, to see if it was working good. We had a totally different result compared to yesterday (Sunday), we had a really good pace.”
“Anyway, we have to start looking forward to Le Mans, because I think that will be a good track for us, especially with my riding style, and we can do a really good job. There were positive and negative points when testing the new chassis, we have to check and analyse and then we will see. I tried the different style front tyre and I feel good with nearly all the tyres, so for me it‘s alright. If they want to go back to the old compounds, for me it‘s going to be OK.”
