Vinales Takes Fourth in Fierce Teruel GP Qualifying Fight

24-10-2020

Vinales Takes Fourth in Fierce Teruel GP Qualifying Fight

The pace was red hot in today‘s MotoGP Q2 session at the MotorLand Aragón. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Maverick Viñales had his eyes set on the Gran Premio de Teruel front row but missed out by just 0.086s. He will start tomorrow‘s race from fourth on the grid.

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Maverick Viñales showed his teeth in this afternoon‘s Q2 session at the MotorLand Aragón. He was keen to qualify on the front row for tomorrow‘s Gran Premio de Teruel but missed out by a whisker, ending the session in fourth position.

Viñales made a strong start to the 15-minute shoot-out and took over the top spot on his benchmark lap, but the pace was only hotting up at the Aragon circuit. Top Gun dropped back to ninth when his rivals completed their second flyer. He was quick to respond, moving back up to sixth place on his second attempt. Nevertheless, by the time the Yamaha man entered pit lane he was seventh in the provisional rankings, 0.539s from pole.

The Spaniard took a look at the pace and headed back out on his YZR-M1 with three and a half minutes left on the clock. He slotted into fourth on his next try. This was short-lived with the times dropping in the final stages, but there was still an opportunity for one more push. The number-12 rider was lying in sixth place and put it all on the line after the chequered flag was already out. The front row was beckoning, but he just missed out by 0.086s. His seventh and last hot lap, a 1‘47.241s, earned him fourth place, 0.359s from first.

Viñales will line up on the second row for tomorrow‘s MotoGP race, which will start at 13:00 CET (Central European Winter Time).

Maverick Viñales

"I‘m very happy, honestly. We got the maximum result possible for us today. What‘s positive is that our main rivals didn‘t do so well either. We did a good qualifying, so I‘m quite satisfied about that. For tomorrow I will try to push from the beginning. We know we prepared well for the race, so our expectations are quite high, and I think we can do a really good job tomorrow. In the race everything changes, so we will try to be smart, be smooth on the bike, and save the tyres for the last ten laps – this is crucial at this track. Tomorrow will also be a real chance for us to see if we can benefit from racing before the Moto2 race has taken place. It could be good for us in terms of grip, but then again it could be good for everyone. So, we will try to hit good lap times straight away. Sure, there are many fast riders, but we will try to manage and be fast."

Massimo Meregalli

Team Director

"Today we continued in line with the work we did yesterday. In order to give Maverick the best possible chance in the championship, we need to make sure that he has good grip on the maximum lean angle for the duration of tomorrow‘s race. We used both FP3 and FP4 to further tweak the findings from Friday, because Maverick wasn‘t fully satisfied after the morning outing. After FP4 he felt much better on the bike, and his first place in that session is a good sign for tomorrow‘s race. In Q2 we had really hoped for another front-row start like last week. It‘s a shame that he missed out by just 0.086s, but it‘s nothing to be dramatic about. Fourth place on the grid is still a good place to start the race from. If Maverick repeats his great start and opening lap from the Aragon GP, he will be right there fighting at the front. In the meantime, we will now finalise the set-up, which we can confirm in the warm up. If it all comes together as we intend, we can expect another thrilling race at the Aragon track tomorrow."