Monster Yamaha stand-in rider Michael van der Mark has completed his debut MotoGP ride with the team at Malaysia and says the biggest difference between the M1 and his usual Pata Yamaha R1 WorldSBK is the carbon brakes.

Van der Mark finished the day in 19th on the combined timesheet after one dry and one wet session. This morning, he ended 2.8s off the pace but ahead of Tito Rabat, Alex Rins and Sam Lowes after missing some of the session.

When the rain fell, his gap to the leader increased to 3.298s but there is a one-second difference from first to third, and he seems happy with his work so far in Malaysia.

"It has been an amazing day. This morning the weather was not ideal so I had to wait for a bit before my first outing on the MotoGP bike. Then, when I took to the track, I immediately felt quite good and I was comfortable so this morning I stayed out and enjoyed the opening session. Then, in FP2, with the rain, I felt positive and I improved step by step,” said van der Mark.

“For my first day, it has been a great experience but the thing that I need to work on the most is the braking because, for me, this is the biggest difference between MotoGP and WorldSBK. The brakes are really powerful and it’s more difficult to find the limit of the braking point. I will focus on this, but tomorrow I hope we have some dry track time and I just want to enjoy and improve in every session. I think I can be very happy about my first day on the YZR-M1 and I want to keep progressing."