Rossi penalised after FP1 tyre mistake

9-time World Champion finds speed in first practice before a penalty from Race Direction as FP2 gets cut short in torrential rain

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) had good pace in a wet FP1 at Phillip Island, before the Italian was given a penalty by Race Direction for using one of the allocated Michelin wet tyres for more than the allowed 10 laps of distance. The Yamaha rider’s laptimes set on his longer run were then deleted – leaving him P20 on the combined timesheets and at risk of losing the chance to head through to Q2 should FP3 prove too wet to improve pace. The Italian is happy to have had a good feeling in the first session however, and is eager to carry on working tomorrow.

Valentino Rossi (P20): “The conditions were very difficult today. Unfortunately we had bad weather, it was very cold and there was lots of water. This morning we were able to ride for 20 minutes in acceptable conditions and it wasn‘t so bad, I was quite strong. In the afternoon the temperature went down and the amount of water was too much, so unfortunately we couldn‘t ride. We couldn‘t work on the feeling on the bike so we keep the quite good feeling we had at the beginning of the practice, but at the same time we lost the heat, so we have to wait for tomorrow."