Yamaha test rider Wataru Yoshikawa has completed many miles on the YZR-M1, but the 41-year-old Japanese found Valentino Rossi's race machin💦e 'quite different' to those he had previously ridden.

Yoshikawa is replacing nine time🍌 world champion Rossi at Fiat Yamaha from this weekend in Catalunya until the injured Italian is fit to return from a brok💜en leg.

Riding on an unfamiliar track, Yoshikawa finished Friday practice in Barcelona 17th and last, with a best🎀 lap time 4.756sec slower than ཧthe sister machine of title leader Jorge Lorenzo.

However, Yoshikawa was only 0.258sec behind Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, who is substituting 🦩fo꧅r the injured Hiroshi Aoyama and has a one race head start, having ridden in the previous Assen round.

Yoshikaw🐽a's only previous MotoGP race experience is a twelfth place as a wild-card in 2002.

"I have already ridden many laps on the M1 but this b💧ike of Valentino's feels quite different to the test bike and I need some more time to become used to it," said Wataru, whose feedback was given to crew chi⭕ef Jerry Burgess via a translator.

"Today was quite tough because in this heat the track was quite sli🍌ppery, which didn't make it so easy for me to learn it,🧜 but I felt better by the end. We need to do some more laps and I will be ready to improve tomorrow."

"It will be interesting now to see how much we can improve during the weekend, as he bec💃omes more comfortable on the bike," said🐲 team manager Davide Brivio.

Yoshikawa was three second🎶s behind the slowest full time MotoGP rider on Friday, rookie Hector Barbera.