Eventful Yamaha V4 debut headlines first Misano practice
MotoGP

Eventful Yamaha V4 debut headlines first Misano practice

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
2 min read

VR46 Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli led the opening premier-class practice session at Misano - but all eyes were on the new Yamaha V4 bike making its MotoGP race weekend debut.

Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez was on the pace straight away with the prototype bike, ending up less than a second off after his first run - and firmly in the mix with Yamaha's non-Fabio Quartararo full-time riders.

But Fernandez was forced to pull over to the side of the track with an unspecified technical issue as soon the second run began, returning to the pit garage and heading back out there on his spare V4 bike.

He found a couple of tenths afterwards, ending up only 21st but just 1.195s slower than the session-topping Morbidelli.

The VR46 rider sat out the opening 10 minutes of the session as punishment for what race control felt was non-compliance with the marshals' instructions after a crash in Barcelona.

He then went to the top of the timesheets with a 1m31.342s, before crashing out at Tramonto in the final seconds of the session.

Quartararo on the standard inline-four-engined Yamaha moved up to second at the chequered flag, a quarter of a second down on Morbidelli as he broke up a Ducati 1-2-3-4.

Morbidelli's team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio, Gresini Ducati's Alex Marquez and works Ducati rider Marc Marquez completed the top five.

After the lows of Balaton Park and Barcelona, it was a rather encouraging start to the weekend for Pecco Bagnaia - the two-time champion among the fastest in the early minutes, though ending up 11th at the end of the session.

In addition to Morbidelli's, there were two other crashes in the session - both for Pramac Yamaha rider Miguel Oliveira, who sent an M1 into the barrier at the final corner, then crashed again later on.

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