Movistar Yamaha team-mates Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales have played down their clash during yesterday’s MotoGP qualifying session in Austin, saying there are no bad feelings.

Vinales was coming to the end of a fast lap and caught Rossi but The Doctor insists he was unsighted as he moved across the track, causing Vinales to stand on his pegs and wave a fist. It continued when the pair got to turn one on the next lap, with Vinales still shaking his head.

“This is a normal thing that can happen, I‘m not complaining. It can happen to me as well, maybe one day I‘m in the middle. I was coming on a good lap, Valentino didn’t see me and started his lap. It can happen with Valentino, with many other riders, because when you’re coming on a good lap, you’re trying to finish it,” said Vinales.

“There was a lot of people there in sector three. I was just angry because I was on a lap, riders get angry when you cannot finish your lap. There are no bad feelings between me and Valentino.”

Rossi said: “We didn’t touch, because I didn’t feel anything. ut after the line I saw Maverick say something to me and I thought, “fuck, what’s happened?’, I didn’t know.

“Maybe the problem was that a lot of riders pushed on the outlap and when you arrive close to the final sector slow down to make a lap behind them. Maybe I slowed down, but I didn’t see Maverick.”