Viñales: “It was too risky to go out” First pole in the premier class after Saturday gets rained off
Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) starts the #QatarGP from his first pole position in the premier class, and his first pole for Yamaha. After topping combined timesheets and the charge to Q2 following FP3, qualifying was then rained off – and the grid will be set from those combined times set during practice, with the rider from Roses out front.
He’ll be joined on the front row by Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) – with everyone hoping the weather sticks to desert stereotypes tomorrow at Losail International Circuit.
Although the man to beat throughout most of the weekend so far – and at the #QatarTest – Viñales had work on race preparation planned for FP4, as had most of the grid – so the extended 30-minute Warm Up is sure to be a busy one for the 2013 Moto3™ World Champion.
Maverick Viñales, P1: “It’s been very strange, and strange that it rains in Qatar! From FP1 I’ve felt really good and I did a great laptime, riding much faster than qualifying from last year so we are happy we can ride like that and have good pace for tomorrow. We want to try to make our own pace, make some last adjustments in the Warm Up, it will be important to end that with a good feeling. Try to make the race and hope the weather can be good. It was difficult today, it wasn’t ok for wet tyres or dry tyres – it was too risky to go out. For me it’s safety first and it’s tricky conditions. The plan to prepare the race – full tank, used tyres – was for FP4. So we’re disappointed we couldn’t do that and we’ll try tomorrow. For everyone who can’t do the work they want, it’s always a bit disappointing.”
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