After three days in Qatar, Petronas Yamaha SRT duo, Franco Morbidelli and Valentino Rossi along with the rest of the MotoGP teams and riders, starts the second and final leg of the pre-season testing session before the start of the season at the end of the month. For the first leg, Morbidelli and Rossi finished in 11th and 13th respectively.

Morbidelli started the day strong with the main focus on testing new parts and setting for the Yamaha YZR-M1’s front fork and shock absorbers with the fastest time of 1:54.367. Rossi had his mind on chassis comparison plus new cowling configurations which led to his best time of 1:54.618. Compared to the fastest guy so far (Jack Miller, Ducati Lenovo), the Petronas Yamaha SRT duo are only 1.184 and 1.435 seconds behind.

According to Morbidelli, “Today we have been working hard testing and I didn’t really do a proper time attack. We focused a little bit more on trying to make some improvements and squeeze a bit more performance out of the race configuration. At the end of the day, we finished outside of the top-ten, but it’s still early and the first day back after two days of no riding. We know the margins between riders will be small in the race, it’s going to make it difficult and every small detail is going to make the difference. We want to analyse everything to help us have a good race in the first two weekends.”

As for Valentino Rossi, he stated “Although I might not be happy with P13, it was a good day because we have improved upon the first two days of the test: both the time attack and the race pace are better. I think we are doing well, but the top guys are a little faster so there is still some work we need to do. We tried something new today with the chassis and cowling, which I like and this is good for improving the bike, so it’s been a positive day. We have improved everywhere, but especially the grip, and that made today very enjoyable. Now we will check the data to see where else we can improve.”

The final leg of the MotoGP 2021 pre-season test will run its course in the next three days before the season starts at the same track on 28 March 2021. The Yamaha boys are looking strong, and it’ll be an interesting start to the season, especially with huge changes to the grid in terms of teams, riders, and bikes. Who’s your money on for 2021?