Movistar Yamaha Score 5th and 7th at Drama-Packed Spanish GP

Race

Both Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Riders persistence earned them valuable points for the championship today. They pushed to the fullest at a hot and slippery Circuito de Jerez - Ángel Nieto, securing fifth and seventh place respectively.

Viñales had a difficult start to the 25-lap race. He shadowed his teammate in the first lap, in tenth position, but fell back to thirteenth place on the fourth lap. As some rivals crashed out, he moved up two positions, but had to hand one back when Alvaro Bautista passed him on lap 7.

The Yamaha rider was keen on pleasing his fans, who had travelled from far and wide to watch his home Grand Prix. He was pushing hard to keep posting low 1'40s and, as multiple riders crashed out of the race on lap 18, he moved further up the order to ninth place. The young fighter seized the opportunity and started to gain momentum. He overtook Franco Morbidelli two laps later and put his head down, setting his fastest lap of the race in lap 21. He was consistently closing in on Bautista and made his move two laps before the end to take a hard-fought seventh place, 13.543s from the leader.

Today's race results see Viñales staying in third place in the championship standings, with 50 points. Yamaha remains second in the Constructor Championship with 76 points, while Movistar Yamaha MotoGP is still in first position in the Team Championship, having scored 90 points.

The team will be back on track tomorrow in Jerez, Spain, for a one-day official IRTA-test, followed by a private test in Italy later next week.

Maverick Viñales

Position: 7th - Championship: 3rd - Points: 50

"We were a little lucky because some riders made a mistake and we could jump up the leaderboard. I was unable to go fast from the first lap and I was struggling a lot to stay with Morbidelli and Bautista. At the end I had a little bit more grip and I pushed, so I was a little bit stronger than Alvaro, but we can't be happy with seventh place. At the moment I'm mostly focused on the setting of the bike - we're not so far off a solution. The bike is working well, but we still need to work. We tried to solve it by changing the set-up, but I don't think that what we tried is the way forward. We have to continue to give our all to get the best results we can at the next race."

Massimo Meregalli

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - Team Director

"The Spanish GP is always a spectacle, but nobody could have predicted the dramatic incidents that happened today. We knew we had a difficult race ahead of us. The track conditions in today's heat were not easy and this is highlighted by the many crashes we saw this afternoon.  Both Riders struggled in middle of the race, but their pace seemed to get stronger towards the end.  Maverick ended the day scoring some valuable points, so he remains in third place in the championship. Tomorrow we have another day of testing at this circuit, which we will use to find some solutions. The Jerez test is always important, because we can use it to do back-to-back setting comparisons. We have to keep working to increase our bike's performance, so we get back to the level where we belong."

Report and Images provided by Yamaha