A raft of new parts including an exhaust and carbon swingarm have enabled Monster Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales to attain his race laptime in a more relaxed way so he can now push harder if he needs to go a little faster.

The exhaust, which team manager Massimo Mergalli said was for top-end speed, went on during the afternoon session as did the swingarm and both were used by Valentino Rossi first. But Vinales set his sheet-topping time of 1’31.532 using them.

“I rode that best lap time with the new parts, and it feels like it can maybe help me gain something for the race. Already last week the bike was really good, and it‘s difficult to improve it,” said Vinales, speaking at the track.

“With the new part I can ride the same lap times, but much more relaxed. This is a positive sign. It means that if I need to push, maybe I can ride a little bit faster.”

The new carbon swingarm, which is a wider item than the standard, has decreased the graining Vinales experienced, so he should be able to use it instead of the hard over a race distance.

During this test we solved the problem with the graining that I had with the medium tyre, so for sure we will try to ride more with the medium tyre this weekend, but also the soft worked really well.

“I could do many laps and I finished the session with some 1‘32-low laps, which is really good for us.

“We just need to understand why I lose grip during the race and feel like I‘m riding on ice, because if that‘s fixed, I can ride very fast and hit really good lap times without being on the limit.”