Blue skies and high temperatures greeted Red Bull KTM Tech3 at the legendary Brno Circuit on Friday. While the conditions around the wide, undulating 5.4km layout were close to perfect in FP1, Viñales endured a tricky start to the weekend as he fell at Turn 8 early in the session. Thankfully uninjured, he soon returned to track to set the 13th fastest time, while Bastianini was 21st.

‘Top Gun’ immediately felt better in Practice thanks to a few setting tweaks over the lunch break. Ambient temperatures had risen to 31 degrees for the 60-minute session, and the Spaniard was soon sat inside the top six places.

Feeling greater strength in his recovering left shoulder, the number 12 KTM RC16 sat as high as second with 15 minutes to play. But Viñales is still lacking the physical power to push his bike to its limits in a Time Attack. Despite his best efforts, he was shuffled back to 12th by the afternoon’s end.

Practice proved to be extremely competitive. The outright lap record was smashed by over half a second. And despite this track being one of the longer layouts on the calendar, just 0.87s covered the top 19 riders at the end of the hour-long session.

Bastianini spent the first half of Practice assessing Michelin’s two rear tyre compounds, as well as testing different engine braking strategies. Despite making some minor mistakes on his fastest lap of the day, he was just over 0.2s off a place in the top ten. The Italian is confident of improving considerably tomorrow with a few minor changes to his setup.

The high-speed action just outside Czechia’s second largest city continues on Saturday. Viñales and Bastianini will use the thirty minutes of track time in FP2 at 10:10 CEST (UTC+2) to finalise their settings ahead of the 15-minute Q1 and Q2 shootouts which start at 10:50 (UTC+2) and will decide the grid positions for the 10-lap Sprint race at 15:00 (UTC+2).

Maverick Viñales: “Today looks like another world compared to Hungary! Every race weekend I feel better, especially with the bike. My riding approach is becoming more normal. At the same time, I feel the bike is responding better. Every time I improve physically, I also improve with the bike. Still I’m lacking in the left corners, but each time is less and less. 

“On the right side I’m really fast! It’s a slow process, but it’s just a case of continuing to work hard. Today was a really big improvement. I felt fast in race rhythm. Then on Time Attack to make this last step to be in the top three positions I need more power to guide the bike better. At the moment I’m like a passenger in that area. Overall, it was a good day. It’s just a case of getting to know the bike more and finding its limits.”

Enea Bastianini: “This afternoon was better than this morning. We tried many different engine braking strategies in both sessions and by the end of Practice we had found our way. We’re not at the top at the moment and we need to improve some other areas of the setup. But I know that when I can ride well, I’m fast here. 

“I just missed a place in Q2 by 0.2s. It was important to do a very precise lap, but I made some small mistakes on my fastest lap. Tomorrow we’ll try something to be closer to the others and I’m confident we can make this step and always be on the same line. Today I made some mistakes when I was trying to get the fastest line in some corners. We’re not so far away, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”