Vinales leads Rossi and Lorenzo on Yamaha test debut

Vinales took the lead during the penultimate hour with a time of 1m30.930s, beating Rossi's time, which had been the benchmark for most of the session, by two hundredths.

The test kicked off with Lorenzo opting for an early start with Ducati, the Spaniard taking first place with an unrepresentative time in the 1m37s region.

Marc Marquez soon took over and stayed in the lead for a whole hour before he was demoted, first by teammate Dani Pedrosa and then Rossi.

The Italian first appeared on track with his 2016-spec bike nearly two hours into the session, his benchmark flyer quickest by six tenths.

He soon reemerged from the pits again with the new engine and, after two stints, crashed out, becoming the first rider in the test to do so.

Despite missing most of the session, Rossi stayed on top of the timesheets for almost four hours before his new teammate Vinales went narrowly quicker.

As the final stages under cooling conditions were more about crashes than improvements, it was Vinales completing the day in first.

The ex-Suzuki rider spent the day familiarising himself with the 2016-spec Yamaha and didn't test the team's new bikes, unlike Rossi, who was back out on track during the final hour with a new chassis.

Lorenzo followed the Yamaha duo one tenth adrift, setting his time with just 40 minutes left after spending much of the day working on his seating position.

He was less than a tenth quicker than fellow Ducati factory rider Andrea Dovizioso, the latter only taking fifth as the duo was split by Marquez.

Cal Crutchlow became the second quickest Honda in sixth, the Briton being among several others, including seventh-placed Andrea Iannone, to crash towards the end of the session.

The Italian's first day with Suzuki, which did not bring a new chassis and instead focuses on engine development in Valencia, was overshadowed by a heavy crash at Turn 10, the bike hitting the tyrewall hard.

Pramac's Scott Redding and Avintia's Hector Barbera were eighth and ninth respectively, both riding on 2016-spec Ducatis, with Dani Pedrosa rounding out the top 10, less than four tenths off the pace.

Redding's teammate at Pramac Danilo Petrucci missed the day due to family issues and was replaced by Michele Pirro, who was 13th with a Ducati claimed to be of a spec somewhere between the GP16 and GP17.

Aleix Espargaro was the quickest of the two Aprilias in 14th while the KTMs of Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith were 19th and 20th respectively.

Both Espargaro brothers crashed during the session, as did Loris Baz and Aprilia's MotoGP newcomer Sam Lowes.

In addition, Aprilia and Suzuki test riders Eugene Laverty and Takuya Tsuda also fell.

Jonas Folger ended up as top rookie in 16th, just ahead of Tech 3 teammate and two-time Moto2 champion Johann Zarco.

Moto3 frontrunner Francesco Bagnaia completed nine laps in the beginning of the session as a reward for winning a bet against Aspar sporting director Gino Borsoi.

Day 1 results

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	25	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1'30.930		61
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'30.950	0.02	47
3	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'31.052	0.122	60
4	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'31.102	0.172	53
5	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'31.131	0.201	54
6	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'31.156	0.226	69
7	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'31.165	0.235	41
8	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'31.242	0.312	71
9	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'31.286	0.356	43
10	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'31.306	0.376	42
11	43	Jack Miller	Honda	1'31.477	0.547	62
12	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'31.674	0.744	58
13	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	1'32.068	1.138	47
14	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'32.177	1.247	61
15	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'32.315	1.385	42
16	94	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	1'32.450	1.52	52
17	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'32.462	1.532	61
18	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'32.578	1.648	72
19	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'32.613	1.683	57
20	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'32.806	1.876	52
21	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'32.811	1.881	71
22	50	Eugene Laverty	Aprilia	1'32.935	2.005	45
23	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'33.231	2.301	59
24	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	1'33.359	2.429	63
25	12	Takuya Tsuda	Suzuki	1'34.110	3.18	41
26	21	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1'36.940	6.01	9