MotoGP, Rossi after FP1s: “Everyone is faster than the last GP, we need to improve”

For Valentino Rossi, the first free practice session was a study session. The Doctor didn’t aim for a time (and his 17th position proves that), but he tried to prepare himself as best as possible for the race.  There were already some indications, waiting to get back on the track in the afternoon.

“We have to work, because everyone is really fast,”  Valentino said. “It seems like everyone is faster than last week, so we need to work to improve our pace. We worked on the set up this morning and tried some different tires.  We’ll see what happens this afternoon.”

 Vinales didn’t want to force himself too much either but, unlike Rossi, he fitted the new longer exhaust already seen during the tests. The Spanish rider closed the session with a 13th time.

“We tried to work hard in the FP1s to prepare for Sunday’s race,” Maverick explained.  "Our main goal is to improve the set up for the race, so we focused mainly on this and not so much on our speed on one lap. I’m quite happy. My pace was good. Now we’ll try to take another step forward in the FP2s for the race, especially since the conditions will be warmer.We know we have the speed, and we can certainly do a good lap, but our goal is to be fast in the race.”