Maverick Viñales had a tough qualifying session in the wet on Saturday at the Sachsenring. He lined up on the grid in 11th, but made up the positions in the race to finish 4th. He currently sits 2nd in the championship standings after losing his lead to Andrea Dovizioso after Assen. Now, Marc Marquez’s impressive win today sees him sitting at the top, but Viñales is still confident about his championship hopes.
Viñales (P4): “I’m really confident about the Championship. Starting from eleventh and in the end arriving in P4 losing a lot of time overtaking riders, I was still quite close to Dani, so that means we really did a good job during the whole race. My impressions of the race are good, we did a good job to recover the maximum number of positions, which today was to fourth. We are quite happy, we know we still need to improve the bike, but overall it was quite nice.”
“After Assen being in second place is positive, but compared to after Mugello it isn’t as positive because we were creating a gap in the standings. We suffered a lot in Montmeló and made a mistake in Assen, but overall it’s quite good, even with the mistakes we are still at the front. To continue like that we need to work a little bit more, especially in qualifying and preparing better for the race. It’s all in our hands to try to make it better. I will try to improve my riding style and to come back stronger and fitter, so a one-month break will be good.”