Yamaha's Valentino Rossi slowly turned up the heat in the first free practice sessions of the Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana on Friday. As the temperatures rose, the Italian rider upped his speed to secure 11th place in the combined free practice timesheets.
It was a busy first day for Rossi. For the nine-time World Champion, the goal in the morning session was to find a solid base setting, one he could develop further throughout the weekend.
Whilst working his way through various setting options, he set a time of 1‘32.538s to finish in 18th position, 1.493s behind the leader.
In the afternoon, the Doctor wasted no time to pick up where he left off in the morning. He was eager to get out on track and briefly led the way, before continuing to fine-tune his bike‘s setting.
As the times dropped towards the end of the session, he responded by bettering his fastest lap to 1‘31.488s for ninth, but just missed out on a place inside the top-10 overall. He finished the day in 11th place in the combined results, 0.848s from first.
“It was a difficult day, especially this morning, because I didn‘t feel good with the bike, but in the afternoon we improved the feeling and the setting,” he said. “In the end, though I wasn‘t fantastic, I was also not so bad, my speed was quite good. Here in Valencia it‘s always difficult, because the grip is very low. During the whole season we suffered a lot in these types of conditions, so we have a lot to work on.”
