After nine rounds, Maverick Viñales sits in fifth place in the MotoGP World Championship. Although this marks one of the best starts the rider has had in recent years, the first half of the season has been characterized by several ups and downs.
The season didn’t start on a high note, with a tenth place in Qatar and a DNF in Portugal – a race where he showed the competitiveness to win. Victory came soon after in the GP of the Americas.
One might have expected that Viñales and Aprilia fighting at the top would become a more common sight, but that wasn’t the case. Following Austin, Viñales didn’t return to the podium in any main race and only twice managed to finish in the top five.
Viñales entered the summer break with his worst result among the races he completed, finishing 12th in the German GP – even trailing behind the riders from the satellite team Trackhouse Racing.
After the German GP last Sunday, the irreverent rider manager Carlo Pernat told GPOne.com: ‘He had a good first half of the season. He is fifth in the championship, but we expected more from him’.