Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) has been getting faster and faster at Silverstone since the venue returned to the calendar in 2010, including a wet weather win on 2015. That pace was on fine form on Day 1 this season, as the nine-time World Champion went second quickest overall - behind only home hero Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and in front of teammate and 2016 winner Maverick Viñales.
Valentino Rossi, P2: “It was a good day for us. First of all, arriving at Silverstone with this incredible weather I’ve enjoyed a lot because this track is fantastic and it’s a big surprise! I’ve enjoyed it also because I’ve had a good feeling with the bike from the first lap, like can happen a lot throughout the season when I have a good feeling, then some other times I suffer more. But we were able to work a lot on the tyres, I’ve worked a lot on the used tyres. It looks like this year the three options for the rear are very open and it’s important to make the right decision for Sunday – which depends a lot on the temperature. We have good pace including on used tryes, when I’m still competitive and my laptime is constant and quite fast. We’ve started in a good way. We have a lot of work to do, a lot of tyres to choose, but we already have good speed and I’m very happy.
"With the bumps, our bike works very well here, and something we found in Misano is good but our bike just works well. You need to have an easy bike on the bumps but with high performance so finding the balance isn’t easy but we’ve started on a good level which is good because we can focus on the tyre choices and go faster and faster.”