Maverick Viñales finished the Sunday race in 4th position. The Spanish rider had a complicated start to the race, with Jorge Martín making it difficult for him to overtake the Aprilia Racing rider. Once Maverick Viñales passed the Pramac Racing rider, he recovered a distance of more than 3 seconds to Luca Marini and finished in the fight for the podium in the Qatar GP.
In the debrief, the rider talked about the race and the sensations he had during the race at the Losail circuit.
– ‘I think it was a positive race for us. Today I was able to ride the bike very well and the most important thing was that we were able to identify our difficulties and solve them. At the beginning of the race, I couldn’t overtake Jorge because of the usual problem, tire pressure increasing with the temperature, but as soon as I passed him, the pressure returned to normal and I had a different response from the bike. Our goal this winter will be to find a hole shot system’.
Questioned about his opinion on this circuit and the new conditions in Qatar, Maverick replied: ‘ The new asphalt is fantastic here. When there is new asphalt, there is always something extra in grip and it is easier to drive with fewer bumps. The bike was incredible this weekend and we rode very well today, even in Sepang it was very positive because we were able to identify our difficulties and solve them, here it was the same. From this step we took, we were able to grow a lot, the engineers just need to improve the hole shot system and we are good. I tried to reach third place, in turn 15 I accelerated earlier to overtake him (Marini), but I couldn’t. I know what I am capable of, I have the potential to win races, it is true that Ducati is on another level, but we have to keep improving’.
