Maverick Vinales says his Yamaha has been modified “the way I needed”, but remains grounded in his predictions for the rest of the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix after finishing Friday second overall.
Vinales branded the pre-season test held at Buriram in February as one of the “worst” of his career, after finishing the three-day outing eighth overall.
However, Vinales topped the opening session of the weekend ahead of teammate Valentino Rossi, and was just 0.031 seconds outside of Andrea Dovizioso's FP2 best despite running the hardest rear tyre.
Vinales says the M1 is “completely different” from how it was in the test, as Yamaha have now gone in a direction he had been asking for some time, and would not be drawn in to making any predictions for the rest of the weekend despite the “solid” start.
“Well, I won't make any predictions for the race, it's just Friday,” he said.
“But for sure the feeling is much more positive than in Aragon, I feel better with the bike.
“We modified the bike quite a lot in the way I needed, I asked for, and at least for me it seems to work, especially on the hard tyre.
“It's a completely different bike [from the test], I have completely different weight [balance] on the bike.
“I ride the bike like I asked some months ago to try, to go in another direction. Finally, we did it, I think we did a quite solid FP1 and FP2, but let's see tomorrow.
“Like I said, at the moment, no expectations, let's see more tomorrow.”
Rossi unsure of new Yamaha fairing
Valentino Rossi debuted a new aerodynamic fairing on his Yamaha during Friday practice in Thailand, which follows a similar design to its current version, but with a second element placed above.
Rossi, who was just three tenths off the pace in ninth after FP2, admits he did not “feel a lot of difference” with the new design, and is therefore unsure if he will continue to use it past Friday.
“We suffered a little bit less than I expected, because it was difficult in the test – today was not so bad,” he stated.
“I tried a new fairing, but I don't know if I'll continue to use it because I don't feel a lot of difference [with it].
“But it looks like our pace is not so far from top guys today, so we have to try to improve and we'll see."
