Maverick Viñales finished Sunday’s race in 4th position. The Spanish rider had a difficult start to the race, with Jorge Martín making overtaking difficult for the Aprilia Racing rider. Once Maverick Viñales had passed, the Prima Pramac Racing rider recovered a gap of more than 3 seconds to Luca Marini and finished in contention for the podium at the Qatar GP.
In his debrief, the rider spoke about the race and the feelings he had during the race at the Losail circuit.
– ‘ I think it was a positive race for us. I was able to ride the bike very well today and the most important thing was that we were able to identify our difficulties and solve them. At the start of the race I couldn’t overtake Jorge because of the usual problem, tire pressure increasing with the temperature, but as soon as I overtook him the pressure returned to normal and I had another response from the bike. Our goal this winter will be to find a rocket start system.
Asked about his opinion of this circuit and the new conditions in Qatar, Maverick replied: ‘The new asphalt is fantastic here. When there’s new asphalt there’s always something extra in the grip and it’s easier to ride with fewer bumps. The bike was incredible this weekend and we rode very well today, even in Sepang I was very positive because we were able to identify our difficulties and solve them, it was the same here. From this step we’ve taken we’ve been able to grow a lot, the engineers just need to improve the starting system and we’re fine. I tried to get into third place, at turn 15 I even pushed early to overtake him (Marini), but I couldn’t do it. I know what I can do, I have the potential to win races, it’s true that the Ducati is on another level, but we have to keep improving.