Rossi: I was worried, but our bike works well

Valentino Rossi arrived at the French MotoGP after a miserable weekend in Jerez, tenth place in the post-race test and then a 'quite slow' private test at Mugello.

So the Italian was pleasantly surprised to find the 2018 M1 appears to have inherited last year's love of the Le Mans track.

Rossi - who fought for victory with team-mate Maverick Vinales until falling a few corners from the finish last season - was third quickest in Friday practice, just 0.243s from Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso.

"It's just Friday, but it was a good start," Rossi said. "Sincerely, more positive than I expected. Because in Jerez, I knew we have to suffer. But then we made the test in Mugello, and also in Mugello I was quite slow.

"So I was very worried. But in this track, our bike works very well. It's just Friday, but like this, it's a lot more fun compared to Jerez."

But why does the Yamaha work so well here?

The answer seems to be that the higher grip - from the asphalt and lower temperatures -puts less emphasis on the electronics, the area Rossi has cited as most in need of improvement.

"In this track, historically you spin less, because the corners are shorter, and also because the asphalt has more grip," Rossi confirmed. "When these two things are combined, the electronics are less important, so we suffer less.

"So this shows that this bike is [mechanically] good."

The more confusing aspect is that the stop-go circuit layout should favour the likes of Honda and Ducati more than Yamaha.

"I asked the same question yesterday: why are we so fast in Le Mans that is a stop and go track? On the paper, it's not a Yamaha track? We don't know!" Rossi laughed.

"We don't know! Difficult to say. You arrive from Jerez where you had a lot of problems, you put the same bike here, and it's OK.

"So it's the marriage between the bike, the tyre, and the track that works."

Vinales was fourth quickest, followed by home star Johann Zarco fifth – all within 0.343s of Dovizioso.

Asked to comment on Yamaha's ongoing search to find a new satellite team to take over from Tech3 in 2019, Rossi said:

"Yesterday I spoke with the Japanese and they said to me they prefer to have four bikes. For Yamaha, for the development, for the data, it's more positive to have four bikes.

"So I hope that they give another two bikes to have four M1 on the grid."

Marc VDS remains the most likely destination for the satellite Yamahas, despite the unresolved rift between team owner Marc van der Straten and team manager Michael Bartholemy.