MotoGP, Viñales: I did not expect to be on the front row

It seems like a rollercoaster weekend for Maverick Viñales. Indeed, because in less than 24 hours, he went from the stables to the stars with a second place spot on the grid that is more than positive. “After the day yesterday, I had some high expectations today, but this morning did not go well, so I did not expect the front row. We worked well in the garage and in FP4 we made an improvement in terms of pace with used tyres. In qualifying, despite using a particular hard – medium combination, I felt good and the time arrived. The team is working better day after day and when I am confident, I go fast.”

Maverick had a bit of a fright in Q1 when only a warning on his instrument cluster from his team “saved” him from an attack by Tito Rabat on his position that put him through to Q2:  “Fortunately, I found out in time that I had Tito behind me, otherwise I would have finished third. The information from the team arrived just in time, so I binned the lap.”

Now thoughts turn to the race, where it seems that the Yamahas will be able to have a go at the top spots.

“I think that we can improve in a few areas of the bike. Right now, we are at a good level to be fast on the single lap, we’ll see if we will be able to be fast over race distance too.”