The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team began action at the Termas de Río Hondo Circuit today ahead of this weekend's Gran Premio Motul de la República Argentina. Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo tested the new Michelin tyres at the very hot and still somewhat dirty South American track for the first time and finished the day in seventh and fourteenth place respectively in the combined times.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were on track today at a sunny Termas de Río Hondo Circuit for the first free practice sessions. However, the day was overshadowed by a lack of grip, causing them to finish in seventh and fourteenth place respectively in the provisional overall free practice times.

Due to dirt on the track, Rossi's morning outing was largely spent on finding a solution to improve the grip-level, which will be key to being competitive in Sunday's race. The Doctor gained confidence as the session went on and he got used to the new tyres' behaviour, securing sixth place with a fastest lap of 1'44.181s.

Aware of tomorrow's forecasted rain, the Italian rider worked tirelessly in the afternoon to further improve his setting in order to secure a top10 finish. He left it until the final stages of the session to put on some new tyres and make his move. He was able to better his time to a 1'42.565s and wrapped up the session in seventh place.

Teammate Lorenzo had a cautious start on his first laps in the morning session as he tried to get a feel for the low-grip conditions. With his mind set on duplicating his performance at Qatar, he began to work on the setting and improved his time consistently until the end of FP1. His best time of 1'44.742s left him 12th in the morning standings.

As the conditions heated up even more in the afternoon, Lorenzo picked up work were he left off in the morning. He focused on getting a better feeling with the front tyre and started the session on used tyres to perfect his set-up before pushing hard to set a hot lap on new hard tyres at the end of FP2. He soon moved up to third in the provisional rankings with a 1'42.819s lap, but as times dropped at the end of the session, Lorenzo was unable to respond and ended the day in 14th position.

The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammates will be back in action tomorrow at 09:55 AM local track time.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

"It's been a difficult start of the weekend for each of our two riders in both sessions, FP1 and FP2. We focused our work on improving the lack of confidence in the front and managed to partly rectify the issue but we couldn't fix it entirely during these two sessions. The track conditions were quite challenging due to the heat, the dirt and the bumps. The track conditions were worse than last year and these aspects surely didn't help us. It is fundamental to understand what is causing this issue and prepare a counter measure for tomorrow's FP3, when we will also start working on tyre choice for the race. I have confidence in the capability of our engineers, we will be ready for the qualifying session."

Valentino Rossi - 7th / 1'42.565 / 32 laps

"Difficult day for everybody because these were challenging conditions. The track was very dirty and in the afternoon it became better but it remained very slippery and also the temperature was very high so it was difficult to maintain the pace lap by lap. It looks like we suffered a bit with the lack of grip on the track, we slide and also the front tyre was not very good. We need to work, so from this moment we need to improve the setting step by step and hope the track will become better and that the weather conditions will become more cold but not wet."

Jorge Lorenzo - 14th / 1'42.819 / 27 laps

"The track is much worse than last year and I don't know why. There are some more bumps and less grip. It looks like our rivals are a lot better under these conditions. We have to understand what we can do to be fast with our bike. We hope it doesn't rain tomorrow and that the tarmac improves a little bit. Let's see if we can work on the bike to make it a more comfortable to ride."