Valentino Rossi made a good start to his home Misano MotoGP round, taking the latest M1 parts to 🎃fourth (+0.695s) on the Friday practice timesheets.

The Italian also admitted it was a pleasant surprise to see four Yamahas in&n༒bsp;the top five, headed by&n⛄bsp;factory team-mate Maverick Vinales.

"It's a good s♏tart, a good Friday, also becauꦑse it looks like all the Yamahas are very competitive and it's a bit of a surprise!" Rossi said.

"But it's a good feeling because it looks like also with the different [bike♛] configuration between me, Mav🐷erick and also the Petronas team, our bike works very well here at Misano.

"It looks like we have a good rhythm and in the accไeleration we are not so bad, in the time attack we are good and also the pace is good. So, it's a good ꦛfeeling."

Non🌜etheless, Rossi has clear ideas of where heꦉ needs to improve on day two.

"For me personally, we still have a lot to do because we have to improve, because I ℱdon’t feel fꦺantastic with the balance of my bike.

"I need a bit more grip in acceleration and in the time attack I'm P4 but I need to try to stronger and close to Vinales aꦦnd Quartararo.

"But it's a good Friday, the feelings are positive and💙 now we have to work and continue like this staying with this speed also fo💛r the rest of the weekend."

Rossi was using all of ෴the new M1 parts - a carbon fibre swingarm, double exhaust and front-brake disc cover - seen at the recent test, plus a thumb brake introduced at earlier rounds.

"The test after Silverstone was positive for us becaus🌄e we worked very hard, especially on the new stuff and at the end for me it was quite clear that the new stuff is better. So I decided to co❀ncentrate on this," Rossi explained.

"All the new things I tried I more-or-less like. It's not a huge difference but step-by-step. This is♏ the way to improve."

The array of simultaneous new parts was a rare move for Yamaha, which has taken a conservative approach to deve💙lopment in recent seasons.

"It's good. It's positive, because it looks like Yamaha work stronger now and in the right direction," Rossi said. "For me, from 𝐆the end of 2016 to the Brno test in reality everythi✱ng we tested was not clearly better than the old stuff.

"So techni🎐cally speaking it was a very difficult period and in fact the gap to the other manufacturers increased.

"But now, from the beginning of the season, something changed. We have a lot of different pe🐠ople from Japanese especially but also Europe and it looks like now we start to see the effe✃ct.

"But it's also true that Quartararo and Franco, who have t💖he normal stuff, are ꦿfast. So it's also the marriage between the bike and the track.

"We have some different configuration, the exhaust, the carbo⛎n swingarm, the [thumb] brake but that is already from two or three races. But we h⭕ave a good feeling."

Rookie Quartararo was sec♊ond fastest and satellite team-mate Franco Morbidelli fifth, with Honda's world championship leader Marc Marquez ൩;the top non-Yamaha rider in third.