The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team started Friday in Misano as they hope to go on with Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales comfortably on the pace, finishing second and sixth on the combined timesheets.

Maverick Vinales burst out of the block in the first free practice session, setting the pace over PETRONAS Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo by a huge +0.550s, in the opening session of the day Valentino Rossi finished 11th, a further +1.495s off of his fellow factory Yamaha team-mate.

In the afternoon heat, the pair finished in fifth and sixth respectively with Valentino leading Viñales, just half a second off pacesetter Fabio Quartararo. However, Viñales goes into Saturday lying second on the combined timesheets with Rossi down in sixth.

Maverick described his Friday ventures by expressing The feelings were fantastic! In FP1 I did an amazing lap, and in FP2 I was focusing on the race rhythm. My rhythm is really good. I was able to set a very fast lap time at the end of the long run.

When asked about the afternoon session, Viñales commented: “I just tried a fresh soft rear tyre to see what the feeling is like, because tomorrow we’re going to push. I’m quite happy, I think we can do a good job here in Misano“.

Teammate Valentino Rossi also felt strong on his opening day, describing it as “A good Friday.”

Speaking to media on-site, Rossi began: “It looks like our bike is more competitive here, and we can be stronger. Especially in the afternoon, I wasn’t so bad, also with the pace. We need to give the maximum because we can fight for a good result. We have to improve in some places, but I feel good with my bike, and in the end, I did a good time attack. The P5 I got in FP2 is a good position for the first day.”

When asked about the track, the local rider had his say on the matter: “they did a very good job with the new asphalt, because it has very good grip and there are less bumps, but there are some bad ones in some places. There were more bumps with the previous asphalt, but they were smaller.“

Rossi will be back on track with his team-mate Viñales, who both will be looking to continue their good start to the weekend in tomorrow morning’s free practice three session.