Maverick Viñales scores podium win for Monster Energy Yamaha in Spain

Michelle Liew

July 6, 2019

Monster Energy Yamaha has ended their run in Spain with a stellar result as Spaniard Maverick Viñales comes in third to stand on the podium.

Photo credits: Yamaha Racing

The 2019 Spanish Grand Prix saw many impressive performances in the Jerez circuit and it was reigning champion, Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda that, took home the ultimate win. Monster Energy Yamaha also managed to produce sterling results as Maverick Viñales produced a podium win by coming in third place. Starting from P5, Maverick Viñales managed to move up a place through the first corner itself. He maintained his momentum from the beginning and tailed Alex Rins of Team Suzuki Ecstar throughout the race. Then, the Spaniard battled against the two PETRONAS Yamaha SRT riders, Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, before Quartararo encountered with some technical issues. He overtook Morbidelli in the last 10 laps and was the third to cross the chequered flag. Teammate Valentino Rossi came in sixth place to secure fourth overall in the championship standings with a 9-point advantage.

Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha)- As It Happened

Photo credits: Yamaha Racing

“To be on the podium feels like a victory to me. I saw that Dovi and Petrucci were behind me, together, so I thought “Woah, Dovi is going to push, so it‘s going to be difficult”, so I just tried to do my best laps and ride the best sectors I could. Honestly, it was difficult because I had just a little bit of tyre left at the end. I don‘t know if I could have done more laps like that last lap, but I‘m happy because the bike was good at the end. It was very important to demonstrate that we could be there. We recovered a lot of confidence, especially with the front tyre. We‘ve done something different on the bike, that gives me more consistency at the start so I can be much more precise,” says Maverick Viñales as quoted from Yamaha Racing. “I‘m really happy because we didn‘t lose any positions at the start, we even gained one, and then another during the race. We‘ve been working really good for the whole weekend. After FP3 we were out of Q2, which means that, since then, we‘ve improved the bike quite a lot. Today was a good test to see where we are. It‘s important that we weren‘t so far from the front in the end. The most important thing is to be on the podium consistently. If we give our best, I think I can arrive at the top, but honestly, there‘s no time to relax. Especially tomorrow, we need to do a good test. It‘s very important tomorrow to get everything done and go to Le Mans with a good mindset.”

Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha)- As It Happened

Photo credits: Yamaha Racing

“We made the choice of the tyre at the very last moment. I wanted to race with the medium, but later the temperature rose a lot and we thought “Medium or hard? Medium or hard? Medium or hard?”. In the end, we put in the hard, and I think this is the big thing we could have changed. I’m very curious to try the race with the medium because at the end Maverick was good. I did a good start, but at the beginning, I didn’t have enough pace to overtake, but on the second half of the race I was good,” says Rossi as quoted from Yamaha Racing. “I was stronger and my pace wasn’t too bad, good enough to overtake, go, and take some points, which are good for the championship. And I think that if I had started more towards the front I could have stayed with the front group, around where Maverick was. The pace of today’s race was very, very fast. I was like 25 seconds faster than my race last year, the gap to first position is less, I felt more comfortable on the bike, and especially on the last lap, I was fast.