Maverick Viñales won the race at Silverstone last season, and the rider from Roses was only a tenth of a second off repeating the feat in 2017.
Moving through from a second row start to slot into the front group in the game of high octane chess, the 2013 Moto3 World Champion was just behind Marc Marquez when the reigning Champion’s engine blew – leaving him some work to do to catch back onto the rear of Andrea Dovizioso and Yahama team-mate Valentino Rossi.
But Viñales reeled them in and pounced past his teammate, then pushing to the limit to try and give himself chance for a last lap pass on ‘DesmoDovi’ – just not quite close enough.
Over the line, he was a tantalising tenth off the win. That said, the Championship is now closer than ever, with Viñales having made a 20 point gain on Marquez and now only four points adrift of his second-placed compatriot.
” The tyre wasn’t a gamble, I felt great on the bike, in the first laps I was just trying to save tyres and it was hard when they were overtaking me because I knew I was stronger in the last ten laps.” Said the Spaniard
“When Marc’s engine broke it was quite scary and I lost a lot, but we were able to catch them and fight for the victory. But I’m happy and proud of the team. This race was really tough with five riders doing the same laptimes to the end and it was hard to be strong and consistent; it’s a demanding track.”
“I’m really happy, we came back strong again and I know in Misano we can recover good points. At the test in Misano we concentrated on electronics, where we were lacking a lot.” He added
“We just tried to improve them and the consistency of the tyre, and this weekend was really good. We improved a lot, but we still have work to do. The first five riders are really close and we need to keep working hard to improve. When our bike works we can be very strong.”
“We have to try and challenge in every race. In the final part of the race I felt really strong, and we have to keep this race in mind to be strong in the next ones. I didn’t feel any pressure from the Championship, I was pushing at the end to try and win the race.” Concluded Vinales
source: motogp.com
