Monster Yamaha's Maverick Vinales topped the opening MotoGP free practice at Misano this morning, leading fellow Iwata stablemate Fabio Quartararo by half a second with the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro in third place.
Vinales is already well inside the lap record with a best of 1'32.198 set on a new hard rear Pirelli matched to a soft front with the Petronas M1 of Quartararo on a 1'32.748 using mediums all round.
Yamaha’s management was criticised by Quartararo and Valentino Rossi yesterday for not putting test rider Jorge Lorenzo out with the rest of the test team here in June. Lin Jarvis may be smiling wryly to himself right now.
Aleix Espargaro was two-tenths further back as team-mate Bradley Smith bagged fifth on the timesheet, setting a 1'33.244 as he followed Suzuki's Alex Rins on a new soft rear.
And it was more good news for British fans as the recently-surgeoned Cal Crutchlow fought his way to eighth place despite having a swollen arm that is leaking fluid meaning there were two UK riders in the top ten for the first time since before all this was fields.
Johann Zarco was the leading Ducati in fourth place, taking his spot with his final lap on the Esponsorama-backed GP19 while Joan Mir - up as high as third earlier in the session - finished in sixth place on a used medium rear.
Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller had on a 14-lap old medium Michelin as he took seventh place, one ahead of Crutchlow's Honda which was equipped with a used soft/medium combination.
Pol Espargaro spent the early part of the session in the top three but gradually slipped back to ninth place and 1.4s off the pace. Taka Nakagami ended in tenth place.
Rossi and protege Franco Morbidelli took 11th and 12th places with The Doctor unable to make the most of a new soft rear on his final run.
Brad Binder led the KTM charge in 13th while Andrea Dovizoso was 14th and some 1.670s off the pace but he lost quite a lot of time with a technical problem keeping his favoured GP20 in the garage.
Alex Marquez was 15th with Rins in 16th and Danilo Petrucci in 17th, while Miguel Oliveira went from hero to zero as the Austria #2 race winner was stone last and 2.447s off the pace.
