For a second day in succession Rossi’s Yamaha switched itself off early in the first free practice session, leaving him to get back to the pits and switch to his less-favoured older bike while it was pushed back up the hill by marshals.

On both occasions, it was the bike’s own fail-safe system stopping the engine to avoid potential damage.

Yesterday it had been an electronic problem, apparently fixed by replacing the throttle body. Today, the team suspected the repair had only been temporary, but were relieved to discover it was a different problem: a fuel-pump fault.

Rossi, German MotoGP 2017