Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Lead the Way on Qatar Test Day 1

Maverick Vinales

Maverick Vinales and the other MotoGP riders got back in the saddle today at the Losail International Circuit to commence the final three-day preseason test before the start of the 2019 season on 10 March. The riders were back in their element when they swung their legs over their bikes and completed the first day of riding in first and fifth place respectively.

The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP YZR-M1s looked even more impressive under the floodlights in Qatar. Notably, the bikes featured a special India Yamaha Motor (IYM) Pvt Ltd. logo on the front, just for the Qatar test, as the company are currently celebrating the start of their new brand campaign 'THE CALL OF THE BLUE'.

Vinales was quickly up to speed. The Spaniard had been looking forward to continuing the work he had started at the Sepang test two weeks ago. The conditions today were very different due to the cooler night temperatures, making for excellent circumstances to further examine his bike's settings. His hard work paid off. He set the best time of the day, a 1'55.051s, on lap 48/50, topping the timesheets with a 0.108s-margin over his closest rival.

Maverick Vinales, 1st – 1'55.051
“I'm really happy, because I felt really good on the bike, especially my riding style. I felt comfortable on the bike and for me that's the most important. This year at four different tracks I felt comfortable on the bike and we could push quite a lot. I'm happy about how we worked today. We haven't done much testing, we tried just to focus on the main things and found a bit more grip and tried to understand which way to go. Now we have to make a plan for tomorrow."

Marc Marquez 10TH 1'56.167
“Honestly today I’m happy with my physical condition compared to Malaysia, we’ve improved a lot. The power is there and I can ride more like myself now. Also, we still have two weeks until the first race and this is the focus. During the night the track got better but we need to keep trying to be closer to the other riders. Now we’ll go analyse everything because during the test here there is not much time."

Jorge Lorenzo 21ST 1'57.090
“The wrist is OK, obviously I’m struggling under braking but I am able to understand the bike. Time is the big limit, we only have maybe three hours each day because after nine the temperature drops a lot and it’s hard to learn when it’s like this. We didn’t try too many changes on the bike and focused mostly on the ergonomics. Tomorrow we will be closer, it’s still the first day."

Day 1 Results