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Maverick Vinales brought a bit of orange to the podium at Lusail, giving KTM second place in the Qatar GP. The Spaniard from the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team managed to slip his RC16 between the Rosse of Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia, with a second half of the race all on the attack. In which he also caressed the dream of taking his first victory with the Mattighofen manufacturer, after taking the lead on lap 11 and leading for a few laps. It was a dream night for Maverick, ruined only by the 16-second penalty given to him for tire pressure below the limit, which dropped him to 14th place.
Before learning of the Steward Panel's decision, Vinales had told a press conference that he did not notice any warning on his dashboard.
"I was only looking ahead. I didn't look at anything else. I didn't have time, because I was too focused," he explained, "However, I don't care what happens next; I'm happy with the result and the performance. It was something we needed and we got it for the project. I'm really happy."
Not even the penalty, in fact, erased the great performance of the Spanish rider, who came within a step of his first victory on the KTM.
"Obviously I believed I could do it. Although clearly it was not going to be easy, because we are fighting with fantastic riders like Marc and Pecco, who are very fast. Anyway, we believe in the process, we believe in our project, in our KTM, and we did a great job. The season started in a difficult way, because I was still not very comfortable with the bike, but one step at a time I'm getting there. I know very well what my potential is, I just have to stay calm, be patient and give my best as I did today," commented the 30-year-old, who by winning the race could have become the first rider to win in MotoGP with four different manufacturers.
"At one point I saw that I was 7 tenths down and I said to myself, 'Come on Maverick, you can do it!' But Marc was controlling the rear tire and the front tire," he acknowledged, "I tried, I tried my best, and I almost succeeded, but for me it's more than a victory: it's a gift. So, we have to be very happy. We fought against the Ducatis and showed our potential with the KTM, and that's great."
The Qatar GP was a good confidence boost for Top Gun and his entire team.
"We had seen in some practice sessions and some laps that we had great speed, but we had to express it in the race and today we did that. Yesterday we made a mistake with the rear tire. We thought the soft tire would be the key to do a good Sprint, but maybe we hadn't tried the soft in the right way because we didn't know the bike well yet. The way we work with the tires is something we have to improve for the future, we know that very well. Today, however, we didn't make a mistake, we just pushed," said Maverick, who was also helped by the fact that he had a little less vibration than at the beginning of the weekend. "Today I had some and that allowed me to push more, but I also changed my corner entry a little bit: I pushed more at the front than at the rear and that helped me a lot to keep a good pace and to be consistent throughout the race, because I could carry a lot of corner speed. There are still points where we can improve and we know that right now the vibrations are one of the key points to work on to try to get closer to Marc and Pecco. We have to be happy today, though, because the bike was really at a good level compared to the previous races."
Speaking about the surprising performance of his RC16, the Spaniard added, "Every weekend I expect to take a step forward, but obviously I did not expect to take such a big step, especially in the race. As I said, though, we believe we can do it, although obviously it is not easy to fight with good riders. It's clear that we made a mistake yesterday, but we have to be happy that we turned things around. I felt pretty good throughout the race on the medium tire and I didn't have a big drop off so I was able to keep a good pace. There are still some limits, but the bike also has some positives and it was good to fight up there at the front to see where we need to improve."
Repeating today's performance will not be easy, but Vinales is aiming to return to the podium in the near future.
"I think repeating today's result will be difficult, because we are racing against bikes that all work more or less well and are of a great level. Obviously so are we and so we have to believe we can do it and that is what we will do in the next races. It's very important to start up front because it changes the race a lot," underlined the KTM rider, who has high expectations at tight circuits like Jerez and Le Mans.
"I expect a lot, because this is a bike that accelerates very well in the corners, and now circuits with more corners will come, where I hope to be able to make the most of the bike, which is showing me that it has strengths in some parts of the corners - he said - It is obvious that we have a weakness, but it can be improved, so I have to have confidence that the factory will improve that weakness or that I can compensate for it with my riding. I am very focused and with a lot of desire for what lies ahead."
Maverick then finished with a comment about a new motocross bike being among his bonuses: "That's a good question. I'm fine with the standard version, because the 450 has too much power!"
