Maverick Viñales Leads Yamaha Top 3 on Qatar Test Day 4

11-03-2021

Maverick Viñales Leads Yamaha Top 3 on Qatar Test Day 4

Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo successfully concluded the fourth day of preseason testing at the Losail International Circuit, securing first and third place respectively.

The spirits are high in the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP box on Qatar MotoGP Official Test Day 4. Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo both had a productive day and wrapped it up by cruising to first and third place respectively.

Viñales kept the positive vibes going during the fourth testing opportunity at the Losail International Circuit. He spent most of the available time fine-tuning his YZR-M1 and put in a time attack in the final stages. He concluded the day with a total of 58 laps and a fastest time of 1'53.244s, that put him at the top of the timesheets, with a 0.079s advantage over second-place man Franco Morbidelli. Today‘s time also moved Top Gun up to second place in the combined rankings, with a margin of 0.061s to first.

Quartararo put his head down today, focusing on his pace. The Frenchman signed off with a few extra laps at the very end of the session, bringing his day‘s total up to 52. His best time, a 1'53.398s, set on lap 48, briefly put him in second place. He ultimately finished third in the Day-4 standings, 0.154s from the top. The 1‘53.263s lap from yesterday puts him in third place in the combined Qatar Test results, 0.080s from the front.

Tomorrow will be the last testing day in Qatar. The session will again be held from 14h00 – 21h00 local track time (GMT+3).

Maverick Viñales

"We already know that we can be very fast on one lap and have a good rhythm. That's very positive, but there are other points that we can further improve, and we are working really hard on that. We have one more test day remaining. I'm concentrating on my race starts and also on the first laps with a new tyre and a full fuel tank, which is important. We are making a lot of progress and this is making us very happy. We are really motivated."

Fabio Quartararo

"It wasn't the most fun testing day, because we had many things to try. During the time attack I went with an old medium rear, but the feeling wasn't good, so I immediately switched to a soft. I was impressed with the potential of the soft, even if my lap wasn't that great. But a 1'53.3s is already a good time. Step by step we are improving. Let's see if we can make further progress on the last day."

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director

"We had a lot of work scheduled for today‘s session. We haven‘t done a full race distance stint yet, but we have made promising steps whilst working on the pace with used tyres. Both Maverick‘s and Fabio‘s times are competitive, and they are also consistent, which is equally important. The preseason testing is already coming to an end. Our main aim for tomorrow is to get the riders fully confident and comfortable before we start the racing season in two weeks‘ time."