Valentino Rossi managed to brush of a difficult opening day of running in Argentina with a seventh position in a damp qualifying having come from QP1.
The nine-times world champion Italian struggled once again yesterday with a lack of feeling on the front-end of his YZR-M1, and this stopped him from setting a time good enough for the top 10. With rain coming in the closing stages of FP3, Rossi was stranded in 17th and facing QP1.
Persisting rain offered Rossi salvation, and he was able to progress into the second session. He managed a best effort of 1m49.272s to go seventh quickest, and was just a few hundredths behind team-mate Maverick Vinales in sixth.
The Italian’s team were able to alter his set-up somewhat, and this gave them a clearer idea as to which direction to take with the bike. However, even in the wet, Rossi admitted his front-end woes failed to disappear.
“This is P7, it’s nothing fantastic because in the wet I wasn’t able to go fast like I was last year,” explained Rossi.
“We still have work to do, but anyway this third row is not so bad and now we have to wait to see what the conditions will be like tomorrow. We hope for either full dry or full wet.
“We have a better understanding and improved the setting today, and on the first exit I wasn’t so bad, but we still have to work
“It’s interesting, there’s a different feeling in the corner entry that I have on the new bike, and it is the same also on the wet. Sometimes the wet is interesting to understand and it’s good to improve the balance and the setting.”
Today’s wet running was the first time team-mate Vinales had ridden the M1 in such conditions and, perhaps unsurprisingly, he encountered a few issues.
The Qatar race winner spent much of QP2 scrabbling for rear grip, and could only manage a 1m49.218s to go sixth quickest. Despite this, Vinales is pleased with his day’s work and is optimistic about fighting for his third premier class win from the second row.
“I’m not disappointed. We struggled a bit with the rear grip and I don’t know why,” he said.
“It was the first time I went out on the Yamaha in the rain, so there is a lot of work to do on the wet set-up, but I’m happy.
“In the end I’m the first Yamaha and Valentino is always really fast in the wet, so I’m quite satisfied and confident. It’s only the second row. From there I can have a good start and contend for the victory.”
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