Viñales shakes off the pain to take hard-fought podium, Carrasco impresses in debut race

It’s been a great season opener for the Moto3 championship. Maverick Viñales was fighting for the win and eventually finished second. In the qualifying he already saw that he can go very fast with his KTM, but the doubts remained for today’s race how he would hold up with the pain from his injured finger which was just recently operated. But Viñales went for a perfect strategy and in a hard-fought race with five riders battling for the victory he waited for his moment to attack. The rider from Roses tried to win, but didn’t take more risk than necessary and crossed the finish line in an excellent second position.

For his teammate Ana Carrasco it was her first race in the world championship and the young rider finished the race in 20th position. The 16-year-old collected a large amount of valuable experience fighting with riders with much more experience and she will certainly profit from this in the upcoming races.

Maverick Viñales #25 – 2º “This second place is like a victory for me. I think we had a good race, I waited for my opportunity to attack, but with my injured finger I couldn’t brake very late. In the last lap I tried to follow Salom, but I lost touch with him. My strategy was clear, to do what I could with my injured finger and above all finish the race, because the championship is very long. I want to thank the team, because they did splendid work with the bike throughout the weekend.”

Ana Carrasco #22 – 20º “I am very happy, because for the first race this is a good result and especially considering the problems we had during the weekend. We worked a lot with the team and in the end we found a good setup and I we had a good race. I was fighting within a group and I led it throughout the entire race, it’s a shame that I made a small mistake at the end and was passed again. But I am very happy and can’t wait to go to the next race an continue learning.”

Source: Team Calvo Press Release