Maverick Vinales says the 40-point reward for his two second places in the back-to-back MotoGP events in Spain and Andalusia is a “perfect start” to his 2020 MotoGP title contest, even though he is again behind victorious Yamaha counterpart Fabio. what remains is Quartararo.
After battling for second place on the factory Yamaha last weekend, Vinales headed into the event this weekend confident of generating the profits he needed to be more competitive in race trim.
Instead, Vinales was fighting more for a constant pace and had to work hard to secure second place after being moved down in order by Pecco Bagnaia, Valentino Rossi, Jack Miller and Franco Morbidelli.
However, with Bagnaia, Miller and Morbidelli all failing in the end, Vinales left it until the penultimate lap to defeat his valued teammate and again secure a healthy number of points.
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“I tried everything from the first lap,” he said. “I tried to overtake Fabio but I thought he was closer to me so I opened the line but he was very smart and broke the line. Then I lost a position to Valentino so I had problems and couldn’t have the same plan. Every time I was near Valentino I couldn’t stop the bike and I spent a lot walking past him.
“I couldn’t find my own rhythm, I got stuck every time I arrived, but on the final laps when I was alone, I got good lap times again, which made me feel good.
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“So I decided to give the tires a little room to cool the tires down and then push, but then I started fighting the Ducatis. My race was very complicated, but after I was relaxed and focused, the final laps were fun.
On a day of taking a 1-2-3 victory on the podium, Vinales’ two-time runner-up cemented Yamaha’s brilliant start to the 2020 MotoGP season.
“I tried to overtake Valentino because it was very important to get those 20 points for the championship and in the end we did it.
“I’m very motivated for Brno, we know what we need to change on the bike. For me it was two perfect weekends, two 20 points in Jerez are really good for me because I usually have problems here, but the team did a good job. “