Maverick Viñales banks third row in Brno

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Viñales was on the pace, but struggled to find those all-important tenths in the second sector, ending the session in seventh position.

Viñales was keen to earn a strong starting position during the 15-minute qualifying heat. He ensured he was one of the last men heading out of pit lane as the session began, to get enough clear space on track to really put the hammer down. His first flying lap had him shoot up directly to sixth place. Though he improved his time on his second hot lap, he dropped to seventh before quickly returning to the box with six minutes on the clock.

The young gun found himself back in sixth place one minute later as he rejoined the track. As many riders put in a fast time, he held ninth place when he put in another solid effort. He bettered his time to 1’55.911s to secure seventh place on the grid for the race, but again wasn’t able to hold the spot and slipped back to eighth. The Spaniard made his final try count as the flag came out. His time dropped to a 1’55.663s with his final push, 0.682s from first, enough to secure seventh position on tomorrow’s grid.

Maverick Viñales:

“It was very difficult in qualifying, because we didn’t find a good set-up and I couldn’t make the bike turn the way I wanted it to. We still have time to deeply check the information we collected today and try to prepare a different set-up for tomorrow’s warm up. I think I can make some steps forward in the race. My race pace is not so bad, but anyway we have to improve.”