Rossi and Vinales split on new Yamaha chassis

Championship leader Rossi has found Yamaha’s 2017 bike less “natural” on corner entry compared to its predecessor, even though Vinales adapted quickly on his arrival from Suzuki.

Both riders evaluated the chassis update on Monday, with running otherwise focused on understanding its issues in the race, but Rossi - who was a quiet 21st after struggling to 10th a day earlier - was not convinced.

“We tried something different with the setting, but unfortunately it didn‘t work in the race,” he said.

“[In the test] we‘re trying a more normal setting. Unfortunately the new stuff, also the new chassis, doesn't work better.

“In this test we tried some different things and I think that we understand something important to fix the problem for the future.”

Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli surmised that “the new frame had some positive points, though there are some areas that we can still improve”.

Vinales could only manage sixth in the Jerez race after struggling for front-end grip, but led the way in the test.

He was also more encouraged by the update than his teammate.

“The new chassis works quite well,” he said. “We compared the same set-up from [the race] with the same tyres, to see if it was working good.

“We had a totally different result, we had a really good pace.

“Anyway, we have to start looking forward to Le Mans, because I think that will be a good track for us, especially with my riding style, and we can do a really good job.

“There were positive and negative points when testing the new chassis, we have to check and analyse and then we will see.”

Marquez works with new exhaust

Following its second win in as many starts, Honda’s programme included Marc Marquez evaluating its new exhaust.

Dani Pedrosa sampled it at Austin, before Cal Crutchlow worked almost exclusively with it during the Jerez race weekend.

Marquez and Pedrosa finished the test second and third, both within one tenth of Vinales.

“It took us half the day to set up this new exhaust, but I think it was important as it has some potential,” Marquez said.

“It was positive and now we must evaluate if we should use it in Le Mans or carry out some more comparisons.”