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It may have been Suzuki's Andrea Iannone that prevented Marc Marquez from a clean sweep of the Friday practice timesheets at the Austin MotoGP, but it was Maverick Vinales whose pace registered most on Marquez's radar.

Valentino Rossi says he is confident and looking forward to getting back on track at the Americas MotoGP in Austin this weekend.

Austin 2017 was where it all started to go wrong for Maverick Vinales. After dominating winter testing and winning in his first two races for Yamaha, the Spaniard crashed out early in the COTA race.

When Marc Marquez backed out of using slick tyres on a damp track during qualifying in Argentina, it was part of a plan to take less risks after 27 falls last season: "This year I'm trying to avoid the risk, avoid crashing," he said.

This video and picture sequence shows the moment when Marc Marquez indulged in some 'argy-bargy' with Valentino Rossi in Sunday's Argentina MotoGP – leaving the Italian on the ground.

Maverick Vinales and Movistar Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi will start Sunday's Argentina MotoGP from ninth and eleventh respectively after struggling on a drying Termas de Rio Hondo track.

Reigning world champion Marc Marquez led an all-Honda top three after Friday practice for this weekend's Argentina MotoGP.

Maverick Vinales will continue with a stiffer set-up on his Movistar Yamaha during Friday practice in Argentina, as he prepares to try and challenge for a repeat of last year's victory.

Having kicked off his 23rd grand prix season with a close podium finish in Qatar, Valentino Rossi moves on to Argentina feeling he can 'try to fight' for a tenth MotoGP title this season.

Defending Argentina MotoGP winner Maverick Vinales heads the 2018 event confident he will have 'many possibilities to win' after a set-up breakthrough in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix.

Valentino Rossi holds the all-time record of 89 500cc/MotoGP race wins, but he was left empty handed on his premier-class debut in the 2000 Africa's Grand Prix.

Valentino Rossi won't be surprised to see the Qatar MotoGP order shaken-up again next time out in Argentina. Both Rossi and team-mate Maverick Vinales were able to turn around a poor qualifying to set a competitive pace in the season-opening race.

Maverick Vinales was one of the fastest riders on track during the second half of Sunday's season-opening Qatar MotoGP. Unfortunately for the Movistar Yamaha rider he had to fight back from 15th in the early stages and could only cross the line in sixth.

'Nobody knows what happens tomorrow'. That was the verdict of Valentino Rossi, who qualified eighth on the grid for Sunday's Qatar MotoGP season opener but feels 12 riders have 'more-or-less' the same pace.

Valentino Rossi signed off a topsy-turvy pre-season with second place on the final night of MotoGP testing in Qatar.

Johann Zarco, fastest in the dry at the final pre-season test, is sure that MotoGP will be able to race under floodlights in the rain, should such conditions occur at the season-opening Qatar race.

Jorge Lorenzo helped draw a line under a lowly 22nd on the final day in Buriram by leading substantial parts of the opening day of MotoGP testing Qatar.

Maverick Vinales' turbulent pre-season took another twist as the rider who had been 12th fastest on the final day in Thailand topped the timesheets in Qatar.

Valentino Rossi's Sepang optimism took a blow as he concluded a difficult Thailand MotoGP test with the twelfth fastest lap time.

Valentino Rossi felt he had little to show for his 65 laps of the Chang International Circuit, on Saturday at the Thailand test.

Confident that Yamaha is back on track with its MotoGP chassis, Valentino Rossi feels acceleration is where the factory is now losing ground - especially to Ducati.

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi celebrates his 39th birthday during day one of testing in Thailand today (Friday). The referenced media source is missing and needs to be re-embedded.

2018 marks the fifth season for Valentino Rossi's Sky Racing VR46 team in grand prix racing. Initially debuting in the Moto3 category, where the team has now won seven races, VR46 expanded to include the Moto2 class last season.

Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales were the only riders in the top 13 not to lap faster on the final day at the Sepang MotoGP test.