Spaniard keeps his claim on the king of pre-season after going fastest at Phillip Island
Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) went fastest in his first test on the Yamaha in Valencia. Then, he did it again at Sepang in the first test of 2017. Phillip Island makes it every test so far that the new Yamaha man has annihilated the competition – undoubtedly now changing Viñales’ pace from a warning shot to a serious title threat for 2017.
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The only man under the 1:28 barrier on Day 2 at Phillip Island, the 2013 Moto3 World Champion went even quicker on Day 3 with a 1:28.549 and found only reigning Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) able to join him in the 1:28 club. In addition, the laptime was not a one-off – a raft of 1:29 laps make for ominous long run and race pace – and the Spaniard did over a hundred laps on the final day.
As more and more decisions on technical direction get made ahead of the first race of the year, Viñales’ roll still remains unthreatened – with one test left before lights out.
Viñales said: “It was a very positive test for us. We came here to try many items and now we got things clear and we already know which set-up we can start using in Qatar. We did a lot of work and I‘m happy about that. Today we concentrated mainly on the race pace and I‘m satisfied, but we‘re still able to improve. We didn‘t decide on the fairing yet, it‘s still totally open, you never know.”
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