Maverick Viñales gave a masterclass at Losail today as the Yamaha man started the 2021 MotoGP season with a perfect victory at the Grand Prix of Qatar.

Teamwork was the name of the game in the early stages as both Viñales and Fabio Quartararo worked together to recover from a difficult start. The duo storming towards the front of the pack as a tag team.

Launching from third place on the starting grid, Viñales initially settled into sixth position - with teammates past and present for company either side - but this was only temporary. Cutting through the field on their way to the leaders, the Yamaha duo began to dispatch the Ducatis ahead and when lap 8 came round they had made it to third and fourth place.
The Spaniard’s pace was astounding, and it was clear he was ready to put his head down and fight for his first podium of the 2021 season which he promptly proved with 12 laps to go, by claiming third from his Monster Energy colleague.

Closing down the gap to Johann Zarco in a matter of a few corners, once second place was a fact, he moved directly into a sparring match with pole-man Pecco Bagnaia. Eventually finding a way through on lap 15, Viñales broke clear, brilliantly managing the tyres and the gap all the way to end, taking the chequered flag with a 1.092s lead over his closest rival.

“The race was especially good because I had the opportunity to fight with other riders, which is always important” Viñales explained after the celebrations subsided.

“It’s been a while since I last overtook so many riders in one race. Early on in the race, I felt this special feeling with the bike. Also in FP4 when we did the race simulation I felt fantastic and in qualifying. I’m very grateful, because winning is not easy, so we are going to enjoy today.

“When I overtake Jack, I did 1’54.6, and was the first time I push myself at the maximum in the race. I said to myself ‘I close the gap a lot to the first guy, so stay calm Maverick, just overtake the riders, don’t be too enthusiastic, don’t burn the tyre, you will have your opportunity’ so as soon as I pass Pecco I just put the maximum power on the bike and I did three, four laps on time attack. Then I was trying to control a little bit the tyre, just in case Johann or Pecco was coming at the end. I felt good. I felt good on the bike, I felt a great potential, especially in the front tyre, I feel really good. Honestly, I mean, we are back and this is the most important.”

“For the coming race we will work and try to improve again, because we know our competitors will also improve. I just want to say ‘congratulations’ to the team, because we did a good job this winter. I think this win is very good for the morale of the team, because it’s always important to trust ourselves. We still have some things to work on, especially on the race starts. But, overall, I think we can do a good job this season.

“This is one thing we need to improve is the start and this is something we are repeating and repeating. I’m trying to start every practice, to at least be the best Yamaha. Anyway, next race we’re going to try to make an improvement and it’s very important for the rest of the season.

“For sure Yamaha’s working very hard to bring a device to start better but when I ride the bike, I feel the Yamaha is back. I mean the potential I had in the Yamaha in the past, is back. This is very important and I don’t know if it’s the track or the condition or whatever, but I felt that the power of the Yamaha bike was there and this is really important for us, the corner speed, the turning, this is very important for us to have it in the pocket because to fight back at the Suzuki or the other manufacturers, we need to have this kind of corner speed.”

The Spaniard’s impressive performance, and fight back through the pack has already received ‘best race of his career’ comments, so does he agree and does he see himself as a title-contender?

“I don’t know, for sure I have many good races, but what I have to say is that I’m more happy to fight back through the riders than to win the race, because usually we were struggling to overtake. Yesterday I had the feeling I could overtake quite good and today we did it, so overall I feel fantastic. All the team did a great job. Today we can be satisfied. Tomorrow we’ll try to improve, because still for sure the competitors will get better next race.

“We will see, we will not take now that we can be the guy to win the title. Honestly, our plan is to be race-by-race, day-by-day, and improve the bike, it is very important to improve in the second part of the championship because the day will arrive that the one track will not treat us well, and in that track we need to be on the podium so we need to keep improving the bike to be strong at the end of the championship.”