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Vinales says Yamaha riding style will bring more pace in MotoGP 2017

Maverick Vinales believes he will be able to go even faster on Yamaha's MotoGP bike, as he changes his riding style to suit it.

Since joining from Suzuki at the end of 2016, Vinales has flown in testing with his new employer, topping the official tests at Valencia in November and Sepang last week.

Vinales' start has caught the eye of world champion Marc Marquez who believes the Spaniard looks stronger than new team-mate Valentino Rossi, and the 22-year-old feels there is more speed to come.

"I can feel that still there is a lot of work also in myself in my riding style, still I can take more profit of our bike," he said.

"I am not doing the best line for the bike, so I know there is a lot of potential in development.

"[The traction] is really, really constant, so you can work a lot on the entry of the corner, corner speed.

"Honestly, it makes it easy to make the lap time all of the time on the same pace."

Both Vinales and Rossi were buoyed by Yamaha's off-season developments, including a new chassis, although Vinales says he needs to try that in a race simulation to lock in his plans.

"I like it, but still there is something to improve," he said.

"We are not 100% sure if we are going to continue or not."

Rossi finished the three days of running sixth in the order, with a lap 0.221 seconds slower than Vinales' benchmark.

"My lap time was good, but especially we find a lot of good things for the bike," he said.

"Especially [on Wednesday] afternoon we worked more on the new chassis and I felt good.

"All the new stuff that Yamaha bring - not all, but the majority - is good, the problem is that the first riders are all very close and all very fast, [close] together on the time attack but also on the [longer run] pace.

"I think it will be a very tough fight, but I'm there."

Zdroj: autosport.com