Yamaha’s engineers have decreased the top speed gap to the Honda and Ducati MotoGP contenders with Valentino Rossi only four kilometres per hour slower than fastest man Jack Miller on the Pramac Ducati GP20.

Rossi was fractionally faster than team-mate Maverick Vinales in a straight line, posting a 326.2 compared to the Spaniard’s 325.3 with both hoping for further improvements tomorrow at the Sepang test.

“Actually, today, I could not feel so much. We were quite far away from the first on top speed, but we are getting closer. I think tomorrow we are going to try more things, try to get more top speed, and then we will see also the behaviour of the bike,” said Vinales.

Rossi concurred with his team-mate but was a little more circumspect: “Looks like we are a bit faster in the straight, but it’s a little bit too early to say because we don’t understand fully. It looks like the gap is less, but for sure we have to work.”

Team boss Massimo Meregalli was even more positive: “For the moment we have been able to confirm an improvement in top speed and potentially tyre life too. But there are other areas that need to be improved, which is to be expected at the start of the season.”