Certainly, if Maverick Vinales is sometimes the man of rants (when his bike does not work to his liking), he is not the man of controversies.
Thus, yesterday evening, questioned during the press conference on the accuracy of the penalty sanctioning the incident which indirectly earned him to start from the first position on the grid, the Yamaha rider did not allow himself the slightest criticism, from Marc Márquez or elsewhere: “well, like I said, I'm focused on what I'm doing. I'm trying to improve my pace and my riding style on the bike, and I'm trying to get used to the new Yamaha. Honestly, I don’t think about that, I just think about how to improve tomorrow and how to be more competitive.”
Stories are therefore not for him, and the man from Figueras seems to be saving all his energy to take full advantage of the feeling found with his M1.
And on this subject, he is much more verbose: “On this track we improved the bike a lot. I am currently very happy with how the bike performed. I'm more pleased with how it worked for pacing. I think we still have a lot to improve because, like I said, my pre-season was really difficult and, now, I'm starting to be a little more confident with the bike. I can attack a little more, even tomorrow. We will try to do our best. I think we still have a lot to improve but the bike seems to be working well here, and we will try. We will give 100% and our best.”
Valentino Rossi said that Yamaha was currently focusing its efforts very seriously on electronic development. Do you think this first line is the consequence of that?
“Yes, definitely. I think we're going to be a little faster race after race. It was important to take a step forward in electronics and I think we will be a little better race after race. I also feel better on the bike because we made a big change with the electronics compared to Argentina, in the way I like. The bike worked much better for my riding style. And I think we still have a lot of room to improve the electronics and, a little more, the settings.
Of course I am very satisfied. It's been a long time since I've been on the front line. I think tomorrow we can have a good race. I felt really good with the tires, especially at the rear. I think tomorrow we still have a little room to improve. I think fighting for victory will be difficult, but not impossible.”
Austin MotoGP J.2: Chronos and starting grid
| 1 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | 2'04.064 | 0.406 | |
| 2 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 2'04.209 | 0.551 | |
| 3 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | 2'04.210 | 0.552 | |
| 4 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 2'03.658 | ||
| 5 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 2'04.229 | 0.571 | |
| 6 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 2'04.294 | 0.636 | |
| 7 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 2'04.456 | 0.798 | |
| 8 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 2'04.865 | 1.207 | |
| 9 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 2'04.963 | 1.305 | |
| 10 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 2'05.058 | 1.400 | |
| 11 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 2'05.260 | 1.602 | |
| 12 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | 2'05.457 | ||
| 13 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | 2'05.686 | ||
| 14 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | 2'05.761 | ||
| 15 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 2'05.169 | ||
| 16 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | 2'05.873 | ||
| 17 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Honda | 2'05.943 | ||
| 18 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 2'05.966 | ||
| 19 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 2'06.035 | ||
| 20 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | 2'06.222 | ||
| 21 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | 2'06.296 | ||
| 22 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | 2'06.370 | ||
| 23 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 2'06.537 | ||
| 24 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | 2'06.726 | ||
