Maverick Viñales and Luis Salom to fight for the podium from second row

Maverick Viñales and Luis Salom, the riders of team Pons HP 40, just like in the previous GPs, played key roles in the qualifying session held on Saturday afternoon at the circuit of Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina.

Viñales, having crossed the finish line in third place, was relegated to the second row or the grid by Belgium rider Xavier Simeón. He will start the race from fourth position on the grid.

His companion Luis Salom, who managed to solve the problems which plagued him on Friday, posted the sixth fastest time and will start from the same row as his teammate. Salom is very optimistic for the race and hopes to break the curse of Austin, where he could not finish the race after being involved in the first-lap multiple rider crash.

Maverick Viñales – 4th place – 1.44.168
I’m very satisfied, I could better myself by two positions compared to Friday so I’m constantly improving. I very narrowly missed the front row, but I believe the important thing is the rhythm and pace for the race and that’s what we’ve been working on. I feel very good on the bike with used tyres and I feel confident about the race.

Luis Salom – 6th place – 1.44.322
Friday was bad for us. I was very far down in the ranking and had a four second gap to the first. I had many problems and little by little we’ve solved them. On Saturday, in the morning session as well as in the afternoon, we made much progress and I hope we can have a good race.

Source: Pons Racing