Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi bounced back from a disappointing first Jerez MotoGP race to chase team-mate Maverick Vinales for top spot in the opening practice at the same track today.
Rossi spent most of the session working on setup with a hard front/medium rear Michelin combination before strapping on softs all round to take top spot on a 1’37.205.
But Monster Yamaha’s Vinales had other ideas, going 0.142s faster than Rossi with a hard front/soft rear combo. In third place was KTM rookie Brad Binder, putting in a 1’37.370 and was the first of three RC-16s in the top six.
A majority of the field, Fabio Quartararo aside, did most of their work on the medium rear tyre this morning as an option that was mostly ignored last weekend.
Petronas Yamaha’s Quartararo, who took his first win here last Sunday, didn’t attempt a time-attack run and settled for 13th with a 1’37.892, after 20 laps on the same medium front/soft rear combination. He ended half a second behind team-mate Franco Morbidelli who finished in fourth and 0.353 off the pace.
Pol Espargaro was at the top of the tree for a chunk of the session but slipped back to fifth even after posting a 1’37.442 with a hard front/soft rear combo.
Tech3 KTM’s Miguel Oliveira was next along, taking his satellite RC-16 to sixth place with a 1’37.492. Jack Miller was the first Ducati in seventh place, half a second off the pace.
Taka Nakagami was first Honda home in eighth with Aleix Espargaro in ninth and Andrea Dovizioso in tenth place.
Injured Cal Crutchlow managed 18 laps and finished just under two seconds off the pace in 20th place with Alex Rins one place behind but another 1.2s nehind the LCR Honda man.
