Yamaha

Full WSS FP1 results from Donington Park

Full free practice (1) results for the sixth round of the 2018 World Supersport championship at Donington Park, Great Britain. Wet session 1. Lucas Mahias FRA GRT Yamaha YZF-R6 1m 44.775s

Alex Lowes is confident Pata Yamaha can shrink the performance gap back down on its front-running rivals in World Superbikes at Donington Park with the track playing to the YZF-R1’s strengths.

Yamaha test rider Niccolo Canepa has been handed a wildcard entry into the UK round of the World Superbike championship at Donington Park to bolster the Pata Yamaha ranks alongside regular riders Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes.

Maverick Viñales’ patience has started to wear, as the Catalan called for changes to the working methods in his side of the garage after another lacklustre MotoGP showing at Le Mans resulted in a distance seventh place, some 18 seconds back of his team-mate.

Not long after facing the devastation of crashing out of his home grand prix when challenging for victory, Johann Zarco refused to show remorse for his approach in Sunday’s MotoGP outing at Le Mans, saying accepting fifth place was not “in the mood of the weekend.”

While small improvements saw Valentino Rossi return to the MotoGP rostrum he feels the Yamaha-friendly Le Mans circuit was the biggest factor helping his charge.

Valentino Rossi maintained his third place in Friday practice during the opening Saturday session at the French MotoGP.

Defending Le Mans winner Maverick Vinales felt helpless to prevent himself slipping from first to eighth on the Saturday MotoGP timesheets. Air and track temperatures were 13 and 22 degrees respectively when the Movistar Yamaha topped the morning FP3 session.

Johann Zarco says his record pole position at his home round came as a surprise while being washed over by emotion as he turns attention to a potential maiden MotoGP win.

Full MotoGP qualifying results from Le Mans

Maverick Vinales put Yamaha on top of the timesheets with a new Le Mans lap record of 1m 31.619s during Saturday morning's FP3 session. At one stage M1 riders were filling the top three places courtesy of Vinales, Valentino Rossi and Monster Yamaha Tech3's Johann Zarco.

Valentino Rossi arrived at the French MotoGP after a miserable weekend in Jerez, tenth place in the post-race test and then a 'quite slow' private test at Mugello.

Maverick Viñales may not be approaching the levels of assurance reached around this time a year ago, but the 23-year old declared himself to be “very happy” with the first day of MotoGP free practice at Le Mans.

Johann Zarco says he feels better prepared for his home MotoGP race compared to last year in his bid for a maiden MotoGP win while is wary of the long run pace of Marc Marquez and Maverick Vinales after Friday practice at Le Mans.

While optimistic for Yamaha’s chances heading into one of its favoured MotoGP rounds at Le Mans, Valentino Rossi concedes his team remains a while off curing its electronics woes in 2018.

Pol Espargaro thinks future team-mate Johann Zarco will be 'fast from his first day' on the KTM at November's post-season Valencia test.

Johann Zarco feels being second in the MotoGP world championship standings for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 satellite team makes his start to the 2018 campaign “a perfect situation” to fight for a maiden race win at his home round.

Having discovered that the 2018 Yamaha suffers some of the same grip problems as last season at Jerez, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales will be hoping the current bike can also be just as strong as last season at Le Mans.

Johann Zarco and the French-based Monster Yamaha Tech3 team will carry the hopes of the home fans during a 'special and emotional' Le Mans MotoGP. Zarco set Le Mans alight last year with his first front row and podium (pictured), in only his fourth MotoGP event.

Hervé Poncharal has claimed Bradley Smith returning to his team in 2019 ‘doesn’t make sense’, and has reiterated his belief that Tech 3 has a role within KTM as a ‘junior MotoGP team’ whereby it will educate younger riders.

Full race results for the fifth round of the 2018 World Supersport championship at Imola, Italy.   1. Jules Cluzel FRA NRT Yamaha YZF-R6 17 laps 2. Federico Caricasulo ITA GRT Yamaha YZF-R6 +0.363s

Full World Supersport qualifying results from Imola

Full World Supersport FP2 results from Imola