Maverick Viñales secured sixth place for the second consecutive race at the MotoGP Indonesian GP. Despite being hindered by a tenth-place qualifying result, the Aprilia rider leaves Mandalika feeling optimistic.
Though not one of his best results of the season, the Spaniard was satisfied with his performance: ‘It was good, I think we must be very positive. The rhythm we showed had a lot of potential, so I think we need to carry on, we need to keep going, keep motivated. Our opportunity will come again, so we need to be ready’.
The Mandalika round was a lesson for Viñales, as he admitted: ‘What we learned from this weekend is that we have to be perfect in every session – and more in qualifying. We will face Japan with the same motivation, and try to bring back again this speed that we showed in Misano 2 and Indonesia’.
Defending his performance, Viñales highlighted that when riding alone, he matched the pace of race winner: ‘In the race, when I got alone maybe around lap 16, I had the same pace as [Jorge] Martín. So, it's not bad. I don't know how much they were pushing’.
Finally, Viñales also highlighted: ‘To be honest, we had the speed this weekend; we just weren't good in qualifying, and that's very important. So, we learned this, that we have to be precise and good in every session’.
