MotoGP Valencia J2, Maverick Viñales (Yamaha/4): “Everything will depend on the start, but I think it will be possible to be on the podium”

After completing excellent free practice sessions, punctuated by series of fast and regular consecutive laps, Maverick only narrowly missed the front row. He finished 0.092 behind third-placed Jack Miller, and 0.200 behind Fabio Quartararo's pole position.

Throughout the tests Viñales showed himself to be very competitive, not on one lap, but on series of laps. He was the most brilliant in this preparation for the race with Marc Marquez, but of the two Spaniards, it was the five-time World Champion who came out of qualifying most brilliantly with the second time.

Maverick Vinales already finished fourth in the first free practice session on Friday morning, including fabio quartararo was the fastest. There we curiously found the first four of the qualifications, with interspersed between them Jack Miller et Marc Márquez.

In the second session, Viñales secured the double for Yamaha with the second fastest time on Friday in 1'30.883, 0.148 behind El Diablo's best time. FP3 was slightly disappointing for Maverick who placed sixth in 1'30.735, 0.503 behind Quartararo. But there was nothing dramatic about it because he was only 0.012 behind fifth Franco Morbidelli, and he qualified in the top 10 for Q2.

FP4 in race conditions saw him display his good preparation for the Grand Prix with the best time in 1'30.735, 0.251 ahead of Marc Márquez (who had fallen without seriousness). Incidentally, we found the usual quartet with Quartararo third and Miller fourth. It was enough to change this order for qualification, and we found Viñales fourth in 1'30.178 behind Quartararo, Márquez and Miller.

Video: The beating heart!

Viñales is currently at the top of his game, after his magnificent Sepang victory where he beat Márquez by more than three seconds. This weekend, Maverick is aiming for victory, but also third place in the Championship, where he is only 7 points ahead of Álex Rins in fourth. Fortunately for the Yamaha rider, the Suzukis are not in great shape this weekend and Rins was not able to qualify better than eighth, i.e. on the third row.

Maverick was brilliant in Valencia when he competed in his first small-displacement Grands Prix there. So he won in 2011 on a 125 Aprilia, then again in 2013 on a KTM Moto3. The MotoGP category was less favorable to him on the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, with his best result being fifth place in 2016 on Suzuki.

According to Maverick Vinales, “Actually I'm happy, because this morning I didn't feel very good, but in the afternoon we made some changes on the bike and we improved a lot, and that's the most important thing. »

“I feel like I have a really good pace, especially with the hard tire. But in qualifying, straight away, I felt a drop in performance in the second front tire and we didn't have any new front tires after that. »

“So I did my best, but we definitely could have done better. I don't know if I can get the victory, everything will depend on the start, but I think it will be possible to be on the podium. »

The rumors concerning the replacement of Jorge Lorenzo at Honda by Johann Zarco or Alex Márquez, Moto2 World Champion? “I focus on myself and my team to do a good job. I don’t look around the paddock, but I want to make sure everything is going well in our own pit.”

For his team manager Massimo Meregalli, “Today's qualifying did not go as planned. Obviously we wanted to be higher in the hierarchy, but the results were very close in today's qualifying session. Maverick took fourth place and is 0.2 from pole. »

“Anyway, the most important thing is that he seems comfortable on his bike and his pace over long distances is quite competitive, although we need to understand if we can still improve in certain areas. »

Qualification results:

1. Fabio QUARTARARO Petronas Yamaha SRT 1'29.978
2. Marc MÁRQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 1'30.010 0.032 / 0.032
3. Jack MILLER Pramac Racing 1'30.086 0.108 / 0.076
4. Maverick VIÑALES Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1'30.178 0.200 / 0.092
5. Franco MORBIDELLI Petronas Yamaha SRT 1'30.449 0.471 / 0.271
6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 1'30.511 0.533 / 0.062
7. Joan MIR Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1'30.573 0.595 / 0.062
8. Alex RINS Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1'30.595 0.617 / 0.022
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda CASTROL 1'30.726 0.748 / 0.131
10. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati Team 1'30.771 0.793 / 0.045
11. Pol ESPARGARÓ Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1'30.908 0.930 / 0.137
12. Valentino ROSSI Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1'30.954 0.976 / 0.046
13. Johann ZARCO LCR Honda IDEMITSU 1'30.826 Q1
14. Michele PIRRO Ducati Team 1'30.949 Q1
15. Aleix ESPARGARÓ Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1'30.972 Q1
16. Jorge LORENZO Repsol Honda Team 1'31.295 Q1
17. Mika KALLIO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1'31.383 Q1
18. Tito RABAT Reale Avintia Racing 1'31.507 Q1
19. Iker LECUONA Red Bull KTM Tech 3 1'31.658 Q1
20. Andrea IANNONE Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1'31.714 Q1
21. Karel ABRAHAM Reale Avintia Racing 1'31.815 Q1
22. Hafizh SYAHRIN Red Bull KTM Tech 3 1'31.839 Q1

Reference times:

Test record: 1'29.401 by Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in 2016

Lap record: 1'31.171 by Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in 2016

Best top speed: 335,9 km/h for Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) in 2015

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

1 Marc MÁRQUEZ–Honda 395 points

2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO–Ducati 256

3 Maverick VIÑALES–Yamaha 201

4 Alex RINS–Suzuki 194

5 Danilo PETRUCCI–Ducati 176

6 Fabio QUARTARARO–Yamaha 172

7 Valentino ROSSI–Yamaha 166

8 Jack MILLER–Ducati 149

9 Cal CRUTCHLOW–Honda 133

10 Franco MORBIDELLI–Yamaha 115

11 Pol ESPARGARÓ–KTM 94

12 Joan MIR–Suzuki 83

13 Takaaki NAKAGAMI–Honda 74

14 Aleix ESPARGARÓ–Aprilia 56

15 Francesco BAGNAIA–Ducati 54

16 Andrea IANNONE–Aprilia 43

17 Miguel OLIVEIRA–KTM 33

18 Johann ZARCO–Honda 30

19 Jorge LORENZO–Honda 25

20 Tito RABAT–Ducati 18

21 Stefan BRADL–Honda 16

22 Michele PIRRO–Ducati 9

23 Hafizh SYAHRIN–KTM 8

24 Sylvain GUINTOLI–Suzuki 7

25 Karel ABRAHAM–Ducati 7

26 Mika KALLIO–KTM 3

27 Bradley SMITH–Aprilia 0

Photos © Yamaha