Maverick Viñales and JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse join forces for 2013
After negotiations that took a couple of weeks, the JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse team has announced that in the coming season Maverick Viñales will race for them on a factory KTM.
The rider from Catalonia made his debut on his new Moto3 bike yesterday and the first feedback could not have been more positive.
The relationship with the team has been very good and his group of mechanics responded perfectly to Maverick’s requirements to find a good set up for chassis and suspensions.
In just 50 laps Maverick improved the lap record of the Almería circuit, set by himself a couple of months ago, by half a second. The best is, as Mack says, that there’s still a lot of margin for further improvement.
Today there’ll be more tests and joining Maverick will be his new teammate, Ana Carrasco who will have her debut in the championship in 2013 with JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse and KTM.
#25 Maverick Viñales 1’39”7 (50 laps)
It went really well and we could put in many laps with the new bike. At the beginning I had to adjust a lot to get used to the bike, but once we had it set up the way we wanted it, I managed to go really fast. But the most important thing is that we’ve seen that there’s a lot of margin for further improvements.
The team as well as KTM have worked really well and I’m very pleased with this first day of tests. Today I could feel that this engine has a lot more power than the one I used this year, and after just one day on the bike we improved the Moto3 lap record of this circuit by 0.5 seconds, and tomorrow we’ll continue to work. I’m happy to have a factory KTM and the team has showed me that they’re very competitive
Jaime Fdez-Avilés (Team Manager)
After much negotiation I’m happy to announce that Maverick will ride for us next season. To have him in my team was my dream to be able to fight for the title next year. He’s a rider that I’ve known since 2004 and he’s got incredible talent. Without knowing the bike properly, he shaved half a second off of the lap record here in Almería and the whole team is very excited about this new winning project. The first day with KTM has also been perfect, and we’re very pleased that KTM sent us some of their technicians to the circuit so we could try various developments of the 2013 bike. Tomorrow, Ana Carrasco will join Maverick on the track. She’s our other signing for what I believe will be an unforgettable year.
Regarding contractual matters, Pablo Nieto, one of the team leaders at JHK, confirmed to motogp.com that the agreement with Viñales is for one year, as well as that of his future teammate Ana Carrasco, who is stepping up to the World Championship after competing in the Spanish CEV Championship.
And as for the much reported contract status of Viñales, Nieto commented: “The agreement with Avintia Racing and Maverick is fully closed. Some signatures are still missing though.”
Source: JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse & motogp.com
