Maverick Vinales says he is not in his “best moment”, after a tough opening day of running of the Qatar MotoGP weekend on his Yamaha.
The 2017 Qatar race winner endured a troublesome winter aboard the new YZR-M1, particularly struggling with the bike's electronics, which was robbing him of traction.
Once again Vinales battled with problems relating to the electronics on Friday in Qatar, and ended up 11th, seven-tenths from Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso at the top of the timesheets.
Vinales says the team tried “something different” with the set-up, which yielded positive results in the warmer first session, but proved to be a step in the wrong direction come FP2.
“Honestly, I don't feel like this is my best moment,” he said.
“As I said during the test, we're having some trouble, I don't feel good on the bike.
“But we are working to solve the problems. We tried something different, which, with the hot temperatures, I was liking quite a lot.
“But this evening it wasn't working. I did two time attacks, but I wasn't feeling comfortable, so we have to continue tomorrow to find a better set-up.”
Teammate Valentino Rossi was happier with his day's work, the Italian pleased with his pace on used rubber – an issue he faced throughout testing.
Rossi – who signed a two-year deal to remain in MotoGP with Yamaha on Thursday – ended the day ninth, which he blamed on mistakes during his time attack.
“The feeling during the day was quite positive, because I feel good with the bike and also my pace is not so bad with used tyres – that's very important for the race,” he stated.
“The level of performance is unbelievable, especially from fourth to tenth place – we're very close.
“I didn't ride in a perfect way, and I lost some time during my lap. I made some small mistakes and I paid for them, because my position is not fantastic.
“I'm just ninth, it's very important to stay in the top 10, because maybe tomorrow in FP3 it can be a little bit more difficult.
“We have to keep trying because I'm sure somebody will improve, and after that we'll see.
“It's always difficult with the front tyre, because we're at the limit, so we need to make the right choice and we still have to work on the balance of the bike.”
