Vinales has no problem with Rossi after Austin MotoGP clash

Vinales remonstrated with Rossi after catching him at the Turn 18 apex during their first runs in qualifying, with the Spaniard clearly carrying more corner speed but forced to take a wider line and back off.

The pair are yet to clash in Vinales' MotoGP career, a bonus for Yamaha after an often-fractious relationship between Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.

After speaking in parc ferme at the end of qualifying, both sought to downplay the incident, with Vinales insisting "there are no bad feelings between me and Valentino".

"This is a normal thing that can happen, I'm not complaining," he said.

"It can happen to me as well, maybe one day I'm in the middle.

"I was coming on a good lap, Valentino didn't see me and started his lap.

"It can happen with Valentino, with many other riders, because when you're coming on a good lap, you're trying to finish it.

"There was a lot of people there in sector three [at the time].

"I was just angry because I was on a lap, riders get angry when you cannot finish your lap."

Championship leader Vinales, who topped two of the weekend's four practice sessions, eventually qualified second, 0.130 seconds behind Honda's Marc Marquez.

Rossi will join them on the front row, albeit lapping eight tenths slower than Vinales, in his best starting position of the season after struggling pre-race in Qatar and Argentina.

For his part, the Italian said he did not know Vinales was behind him, as riders jockeyed for track position early in the session.

"We didn't touch, because I didn't feel anything," he said.

"But after the line I saw Maverick say something to me and I thought, ''fuck, what's happened?' I didn't know.

"Maybe the problem was that a lot of riders pushed on the outlap and when you arrive close to the final sector slow down to make a lap behind them.

"Maybe I slowed down, but I didn't see Maverick."