The entire Losail race Maverick Viñales was playing catch-up. Despite his twelfth spot on the grid, the Yamaha rider came out over the race distance, recovering ground and finishing sixth. Just 67 thousandths of a second separated him from Danilo Petrucci’s fifth place.

“I am very happy with this result after losing three months finding a setup that would make me competitive – the Spaniard began – A few areas of the M1 still need to be improved, like coming out of turns, but I am still satisfied with this Sunday.”

The Spaniard began to see the encouraging signals from yesterday.

“In FP4 I felt good with the used tyres, showing that I had the right pace – he recalled – especially in the race finale I felt strong and ready to attack. It had been three months that I was unable to ride with my style. In fact, I didn’t really agree with the direction Yamaha had taken. Now the situation has improved, since before I was unable to ride the bike.”

As we know well, Maverick took an opposite direction from Rossi.

"Exactly – he confirmed – I prefer a harder suspension on the front than Rossi does since I am a rider who stresses the front a lot. I think it was an intelligent choice, which allowed us to rediscover competitiveness."

His face therefore beams great satisfaction.

“Let’s just say that the sensations are similar to those I had a year ago and especially better than the tests – he reiterated – It had been a long time since I had felt so strong astride the M1.”