MOTOGP
VALENCIA POST SEASON TEST
NOVEMBER 20-21, 2018
RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT / VALENCIA, SPAIN
P66
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
M
averick Vinales led both
days of the first tests of
the 2019 season, giving
encouragement to Yamaha fans
that the difficulties faced by both
riders during 2018 might be over.
But the Spaniard, the only
rider of a YZR-M1 to win a race in
2018, sounded a note of caution.
"There is still a lot to do on top
power to make it smoother," he
said. "It is still aggressive, and I
lose traction."
His lap time of 1:30.757 was
inside the race record and more
than a half-second quicker than
his own pole time at the season-
ending race at Valencia, set on
the previous Saturday.
But conditions were slightly
better, after a rain-bracketed first
day and a cold start to the sec-
ond. It was still a little slippery,
Vinales said, making his position
all the more encouraging, since
slippery conditions were one of
the 2018 Yamaha's downfalls.
He and teammate Valentino
Rossi were testing two different
engine configurations without any
changes after suffering all year
stuck with an over-aggressive
throttle response causing wheel-
spin and poor acceleration. The
plan was to settle on an engine
first, hopefully at this week's Jer-
ez tests, and only then proceed
with other areas of development.
Testing times, however, should
not be "over-analyzed," said Sun-
day's race winner, Ducati's Andrea
Dovizioso, who placed second,
just over a tenth slower. "For one
thing, the number of available tires
were limited," he explained.
Maverick Vinales
dominated the
post-season test
at Valencia. It's
early days, but
has Yamaha
finally turned
the corner that
makes the YZR-M1
competitive over a
race distance?
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