Maverick Vinales Banks6th in British GP Qualifying

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales showed great form on the second day at the Silverstone Circuit. Having both secured places in the Q2 session at the end of FP3, the Factory Yamaha riders went on to set impressive lap times under the 1’59s-mark to secure second and sixth place respectively on the grid for tomorrow‘s GoPro British Grand Prix.

Viñales waited for most of the riders to exit their pit garages before he swung his leg over his YZR-M1, ready to push to the max, going all out for just one hot lap. He slotted into third position after this first try and immediately returned to the box.

With four and a half minutes on the clock, the Spaniard was back on his way. He was holding fifth place for the moment but was intent on being on the front row of the grid. He set three red sectors on his penultimate bid, but a twitch in the last sector cost him precious time, although he did move back up to fourth with this 1’58.762s lap. Unable to improve with his last effort, Viñales ended the session in sixth place, 0.594s from pole.

Maverick Viñales

“It has been a good weekend so far. We prepared really well for the race and I feel very confident for tomorrow, so I‘m going to try my best from Lap 1. Somehow I can hit very good lap times at the end of a race, which means that will be one of our strong points. I will be trying the maximum at the end. The beginning of the race is what we have to improve on, we have to be at the maximum level there too. I think it will be important to make another step in the Warm Up tomorrow if we want to battle for the win. The podium is very open, so we will try to be there, at the front, at the beginning and then we‘ll see.”