Michelin’s updated tyre was the focus for Valentino Rossi on the opening day of MotoGP testing at Jerez in Spain, where the multi-time world champion was unable to lodge a fast-lap and ultimately wound up 17th on the timesheets.

The Yamaha Racing Team introduced several new specification powerplants at last week’s Valencia test, although the two days in Jerez will ultimately determine the direction for 2019.

Rossi explained the direction is quite clear at this stage after pairing the update engine with the new tyre, although he encountered a technical difficulty later in the day which halted his progress.

“At the end my position in the timesheets is really bad, also because we had some problems with the new tyres, so I didn’t do a time-attack,” said Rossi.

“My pace is a little bit better, but I have to check the data more thoroughly. We continued to test the engine, we made some comparisons. The direction to go in and the decision is quite clear. I started riding on new tyres, but at one point I heard a strange noise, so I stopped. I sincerely don’t know what happened yet.”

Teammate Maverick Vinales was fourth fastest as testing is set resume tomorrow for the final outing of the year.