MotoGP Rookie Hafizh Syahrin enjoyed his best Friday in the premier-class♚ as he set the Yamaha pace with fourth on the Fr🍸iday practice timesheets at Brno in the Czech Republic.

Syahrin joined most of the top ten (including the other Yamahas) in using a soft rear tyre to record his best lap time, which was just 0.224s behind Repsol Ho꧒nda's Dani Pedrosa, at the end of a scorching hot session.

But the Malaysian was especially pleased with his performanc⭕e on the hard front and rear rubber, after a punishing experience with the latte♋r at Austin.

"This is my best Fꦓriday e⛎ver and I also really surprised myself," said Syahrin, who now leads the rookie standings by three points from Franco Morbidelli.

"I lo🔯ve the circuit and I think it works well with my style. I also spoke with the team and saw some videos from Jorge and tried𓄧 to copy some information from him.

"During the summer break I also did some training at home and today in the morning I felt really good wi🍬th the bike and also really motivate♐d for the second half of the season.

"In the afternoon I also tried new things🌺 with the tyres, especially the hard compound. Because I never tried the hard front tyre and also I didn't have confidence with the rear before because in Austin I had a big highside with the hard ꧟tyre.

"Usually it takes a long time to have good grip and good feeling with the hard tyr🧸es, but today suddenly after one lap I felt really good with the hard tyre and I tried to keep my ཧpace. I tried to understand how the tyre works.

"I'm really happy with the hard tyre and that's why I can keep my pace really close to the rest of the ride✱r😼s."

Syahrin is now turning his focus toward♋s defending his top tenও place on Saturday morning, which would allow direct access to Qualifying 2.

"It will be interesting tomorrow morning because I know&n🍸bsp;some riders will improve, especially Marc [Marquez] be🧸cause today he was tenth and for sure tomorrow he won't want to be out of the top ten.

"But tomorrow morning eve൲ryone can improve because the temperature of the track will be lower and for the tyres𝐆 a bit less stress.

"So I hope I can also improve tom♔orrow morning by two or three tenths to stay in the top ten and I really want to go into Qualifying 2. Because many times I was very close to Qualifying 2 but I went out."

In the pꦺast, the pressure of trying to get into Qualifying 2 has been Syahrin's downfall.

"I went out today feeling like I was at a test, not a race weekend. No 🐼stress. Because mostly when I was really close to th💝e top ten I got really stressed because I really want it, but it didn't happen," he said.

"So I tried to stay really calm, relaxed and the s﷽trategy is working☂ really well."

Team-mate Johann Zarco was ninth fastest, with Movistar Yamaha's Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales seventh and﷽ sixth respectively.