Maverick Viñales qualifies third at COTA

Maverick Viñales finished 3rd in the qualifying session of the GP of the Americas. The rider of Team Calvo improved from the morning session and finished in close proximity to the two fastest riders.

The aim had been to get a front row start tomorrow and this has been achieved. Team Calvo put their maximum effort into working on the set up of the KTM of Viñales and tomorrow they’ll fight for the top step of the podium at this spectacular circuit.

Ana Carrasco, who had a fantastic practice session yesterday, had a problem with the electronic of the bike this morning and lost a lot of practice time. But in the afternoon her bike worked really well and she could improve her time by a couple of tenths. Tomorrow she’ll continue to focus on learning and gaining experience in this difficult Moto3 class.

Maverick Viñales #25 – 2’17’’100 – 3rd place / @maverickmack25
Overall I’m happy because in the end we managed to secure the 3rd place on the grid and closed the gap to the leading rider a little. There is a lot to improve and tomorrow we hope to do better. I think the 3 fastest will also race together in a group tomorrow, and if we can improve the bike a little, we’ll be fighting for the win. I’m confident that my team and I can make a step forward for the race. The hand is perfect, it doesn’t cause me any problems and on the bike I don’t even think about it.

Ana Carrasco #22 – 2’20’’436 – 26th / @AnaCarrasco_22
The qualifying was a bit harder than expected, but this is because we could hardly ride during the third free practice, and to skip an opportunity to go out on the bike makes things difficult. It’s a new circuit and each lap you put in helps you to improve. We also had some problems that we didn’t have yesterday and because we missed the morning session we didn’t manage to solve everything. But I’m calm because I believe, even though I haven’t done a very fast lap yet, I’ve got the pace to be competitive during the race.

Pablo Nieto (Team Manager) / @pablonieto22
I believe we have to be satisfied because it’s always important to get a front row start. Rins has got a very good pace, but keeping in mind that we were having problems to find the ideal set up, Maverick’s result is really good. Also, the most important thing is the race and tomorrow we’ll certainly fight for the top spot. With Ana I’m very happy because she’s working very hard. She has to continue like this and sooner or later she’ll do very well for Team Calvo.

Source: Team Calvo