Valentino Rossi had a more difficult Day 1 in the Spanish GP, taking twelfth on the timesheets by the end of play and finding it tough going in the wet and dry.

Saturday is a new day however, and the only man to have been on every podium so far in 2017 will be banking on some overnight improvements to get himself back into contention for back-to-back wins at the track after having taken the victory last year – with FP3 another chance to gain entry to Q2 qualifying and the weather on Saturday hopefully clearer.

The 'Doctor' also tested the new Yamaha 'aero-fairing' on Day 1 in Spain, with a number of pitboxes this weekend putting their versions through their paces.

"The conditions were quite wet today." Said Rossi "This morning the track was full wet and the first impression is that with this bike we suffer a bit more."

"We have to work. In fact, we were not very fast this morning. In the afternoon it was dry, but not completely, so we had to stay cautious because there were some humid patches."

"In the afternoon we also had some problems. We are not fast enough, so we have to work."