Monster Yamaha's Maverick Vinales is sure of one thing as he heads into this weekend's Austin MotoGP and that is he can't give away any more championship points.

The Spaniard is already 36 points behind Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez after just two races and needs to fix his full fuel pace problem if he is to remain a contender.

“The first thing I want to say is that I arrive in Austin in a good physical condition after the crash in Argentina, and that is the most important thing," said Vinales.

"Luckily, I didn’t hurt myself and I can say that I’ll start the third round of the calendar with full strength.

"Austin is a track that I really like and where I’ve always felt very good on the bike. I have very good memories of the Circuit of the Americas, so I’m going to try to enjoy the Grand Prix as much as I can.

We will try to change the small things we’ve found at the last round in order to be able reach the podium, that is our main goal.

"We have to give our 100% to lose no more points and move upwards in the classification."

Vinales counts himself lucky to have escaped injury after an unfortunate crash in Argentina. Due to the incident he has dropped to 11th place in the rankings, but he arrives in the USA determined to put the experience behind him and get back on the podium at COTA, which he has visited frequently.

In the very first year of riding at the circuit, in 2013, the Spaniard secured second place there in the Moto3 class. The year after he topped the result with a victory in the Moto2. His best result in the MotoGP class was achieved last year, when he took second place.