INTERNATIONAL NEWS - The MotoGP season may be done and dusted but there is a lot happening after Sunday's last race in Valencia.
A two-day official winter testing started on Tuesday at the Spanish circuit with new riders getting the the chance to appear with their 2017 teams for the first time.
In Tuesday's action, Jorge Lorenzo made his debut at Ducati, Andrea Iannone at Suzuki, Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro at KTM, Maverick Vinales at Yamaha, Aleix Espargaro at Aprilia while Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham were in action at Aspar.
And there were debuts for four rookies who have stepped up from Moto2 to MotoGP, namely Johann Zarco and Jonas Folger at Tech 3 Yamaha, Alex Rins at Suzuki and Sam Lowes at Aprilia.
Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi, who finished second behind new team-mate Vinales after Tuesday's testing, said that he had expected a lot more from Yamaha's new engine but maintained there were some positives as well.
“It's a positive day, because I'm second and the lap time is not so bad,” said the nine-time world champion afterwards.
“But I did it with the old bike. Before, we tried the new engine, which sincerely is not fantastic, I expected more. But we don't improve a lot. It's just the first version, but we have to work.
“And the chassis, the first feeling was OK, but after, unfortunately, I crash, because I put the hard front, which for our bike has not enough grip.
“But unfortunately I crash with the new chassis, so I damaged the bike and I don't have time to retry. So now the guys work, and I will try the new chassis another time tomorrow. We'll see.”
Asked to clarify his thoughts on the new engine, Rossi said, “I expected better, but there is not a lot of difference.”
