In less than two years the highly talented young Spanish rider Maverick Viñales has risen from a Moto3 title candidate to a factory MotoGP star, regularly achieving top ten results in the premier class on the works Suzuki (writes Joseph Beale)…
Heading in to the final few rounds of the 2013 Moto3 season Viñales battled with compatriots Luis Salom and Alex Rins in one of the most thrilling title fights in history. Ultimately he would secure the lightweight class crown at the final GP in Valencia, before moving up into Moto2 last year, to impress the paddock with a stunning victory in just his second race on 600cc machinery, at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.
Whilst Suzuki were preparing for their return to MotoGP team manager Davide Brivio was closely monitoring Viñales’ progress in Moto2 and the rider’s obvious raw ability, matched with an uncanny skill to avoid crashes and notch points on a remarkably consistent basis, meant the Japanese factory would fast-track the youngster to the top. Viñales won three of his last five Moto2 appearances before joining Suzuki and his form has been solid once more in 2015.
Lining Viñales up alongside his more experienced countryman Aleix Espargaro was an intelligent move by Brivio and Suzuki have done a decent job with their MotoGP comeback in 2015, thanks to the efforts of their two riders. With four races remaining in his rookie season at the top level Viñales sits 12th in the overall standings, just two points behind his colleague Espargaro.
Asked to summarise how he has found things so far in MotoGP, Viñales told OTOR: “For sure it has been better than Suzuki and I were expecting because the bike was a bit better and in the end we got really good results in some races. So I think it´s really positive.”
“Right now we need to get back to how the feeling was earlier in the season and continue to be strong like we were at Brno which I think was the best race for us. We think we’re doing a positive job and we can improve a lot.”
On the experience he has gathered so far in 2015 and what he feels he needs to improve on the 20 year-old stated: “One thing I have definitely learnt is to work really hard! Because there are a lot of different jobs to what I had last year like electronics set-ups and you have to speak to a lot of people in the team, so I´ve learned a lot from this.”
“I think we need to improve a little bit on the first lap of the race because for us it’s a bit difficult. Also if the bike improves this can help and for sure I need to learn how to be calmer, because sometimes I’m a bit nervous.”
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