Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales ended the first day on top of the pre-season MotoGP test for the 2019 season at Valencia which was affected by rain.
Vinales rode with his new bike number #12 and set a time of 1m31.416s abode the Yamaha to beat Honda’s Marc Marquez (1m31.718s) by 0.302s with Valentino Rossi (1m31.845s) doing well to be third riding the new engine on the M1.
Vinales did 39 laps in all to Marquez’s 25 with the champion not doing excessive riding due to the shoulder issues. Rossi completed 40 laps with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso (1m31.846s) in fourth with 38 laps to his name.
Remarkably, the two Italians were only separated by 0.001s. The day was disrupted due to rain as most riders stayed away from the track in the early part. It was better in between but the end also had rain which forced everyone to complete their programme early.
Honda’s test rider Stefan Bradl (1m32.015s) was fifth behind Dovizioso for LCR outfit with 51 laps as MotoGP’s newest team Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli (1m32.085s) ended up sixth with 40 laps.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro (1m32.095s) finished seventh with 37 laps from new factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci (1m32.100s), who completed 43 laps – the Italian found himself in a Espargaro sandwich as KTM’s Pol (1m32.179s) was ninth with 35 laps.
The Top 10 was rounded out by Ducati’s test rider Michele Pirro (1m32.220s) with just the 19 laps. Pramac Racing’s new hiring Francesco Bagnaia (1m32.396s) lined up 11th in his first outing abode the Ducati from Suzuki’s leading rider Alex Rins (1m32.402s).
Bagnaia did 38 laps with Rins doing 32. LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami (1m32.539s) was 13th with 26 laps from Pramac Racing Ducati’s Jack Miller (1m32.555s) and Suzuki’s new hiring Joan Mir (1m32.787s) in the Top 15 as they did 19 and 59 laps respectively.
In fact, Mir did the highest number of laps in the day. Making his return was Avintia Racing’s Tito Rabat (1m32.834s) abode the Ducati in 16th with 36 valuable laps while factory KTM’s new rider Johann Zarco (1m32.835s) was 17th with 36 laps as well.
Jorge Lorenzo (1m32.959s) on his first outing with Honda was only 18th with the injury he is carrying, but he still did 30 laps with Aprilia’s new hiring Andrea Iannone (1m33.291s) in 19th with just the 15 laps.
Avintia Racing Ducati’s new rider Karel Abraham (1m33.301s) was 20th with 35 laps with Aprilia’s test rider Bradley Smith (1m33.709s) 21st with 17 laps ahead of Yamaha’s test rider Jonas Folger (1m33.810s) with 30 laps.
Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo (1m33.850s) was 23rd with 38 laps as the two KTM Tech 3 riders Hafizh Syahrin (1m34.233s) and Miguel Oliveira (1m35.118s) rounded out the 25 riders – with the two completing 20 and 33 laps respectively.
