Maverick Viñales 2nd, Luis Salom 15th in Motegi

Páginas Amarillas HP 40 rider Maverick Viñales achieved the second place in the Japanese Grand Prix, which was held today at Motegi. Viñales started from the second row of the grid after setting the fourth fastest time in qualifying yesterday.

The protégée of Sito Pons, who took the win at the last round at Motorland Aragon, had the race win as his declared goal for today.

After a good start, Maverick positioned himself behind Frenchman Johan Zarco in second and they tried to follow Swiss rider Luthi imposing a strong pace from the start.

When Viñales had overtaken Zarco, the gap to Luthi was just over two seconds. Maverick tried to reach Luthi to fight for what would have been his second successive victory.
He began to lap faster, improving the pace of training by more than half a second. After several fastest laps in which Maverick broke the circuit record, he had reduced the distance to Luthi to seven tenths, but by then there were only two laps remaining and time ran out for Viñales.

Maverick achieved the seventh podium of the season and mathematically secures the third place in the championship.

His teammate in the Páginas Amarillas HP 40 team, Luis Salom, had a more difficult race. Starting from the twenty-fifth position, and having been immersed in a large group for much of the race, he could not really ride as fast and make up as many positions as quickly as he wanted. Gradually Salom overtook several rivals and climbed the order to finish in fifteenth place and adding one more point to his tally.

Maverick Viñales – 2nd place
It was a good weekend. In the race we were quick, we’ve broken the record for the track, but it was not enough to win. It took me a while to overtake Zarco and when I did, Luthi had gone. I think this was the key to the race. I concentrated hard and did my best to try and catch him but I couldn’t succeed. Thomas has done a good race and deserved the victory. In Australia we’ve always done well, I’m in good shape, the team is doing a great job, so our goal for the weekend is again fighting to win the race.

Luis Salom – 15th place
It was a difficult race. When you start that far back in this category it’s very difficult. I advanced slowly and picked up my pace. We eventually managed to get into the points. I’m not entirely happy but we are gradually getting more feeling with the bike and I can’t wait to get to Australia to continue working and improving.

Source: Pons Racing