Maverick Vinales donates title winning Moto3 bike to Valencia auction
“I won my title with this bike and it's always special. But these people need help.”
Maverick Vinales, who will ride in his final MotoGP event for Aprilia this weekend, has donated his title-winning Moto3 bike to the charity auction in aid of the Valencia flood victims.
Devastation from the flooding has resulted in MotoGP moving its planned season finale from Valencia to Barcelona this weekend, with an online auction among the fundraising initiatives.
Vinales won his first and so far only world title as a Moto3 rider in 2013, but the desire to help those suffering in the aftermath of the Valencia disaster exceeds his emotional attachment to the KTM RC250GP machine.
“Because this is humanity. If we don't help from each other, who’s going to help us?” Vinales said on the eve of this weekend’s retitled ‘Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP’ finale.
“It's quite a few years that I tried not to live in a material way, so trying to live more on feelings. And somehow I felt, OK, of course I have a special feeling with this bike, because I won my title and it's always special. But these people need help.
“Some friends have been to Valencia trying to help, working and they say it's really, really bad. Maybe on the media we didn't see enough stuff, but they said this is really, really bad.
“So any help we can give is good. And if a fan would like to help by paying good money for this bike, I'm more than happy that this [money] will arrive to these people.”
Vinales will return to a KTM next season, for the first time since 2013, via a move to the Tech3 team.
But for now, the only rider to defeat Ducati in a grand prix this season faces an outside chance of beating current KTM riders Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta for fifth place in the world championship.
“I want to finish this season on a good point,” Vinales said. “Still, we have some fight for 5-6-7-8 in the championship so if we can overcome some KTMs it will be nice.
“But obviously I'm excited [for next week’s KTM debut also]. It's a new adventure, a totally different bike.”
Despite his perfect COTA double win and a prior Sprint victory at Portimao, Vinales has often felt the 2024 Aprilia to be a very different bike from the 2023 model that dominated last year’s Catalunya round.
“It's obvious that the 23 bike suits really good to this kind of track, like Montmelo, Silverstone, Assen,” he said.
“Especially the engine brake was the biggest issue this year.
“But I'm quite positive and motivated. It's a good test. It's always a challenge when you come back to the same track, and we've been always faster the second time we came to a track.”
Vinales finished 8th and 12th during MotoGP's May visit to Catalunya, when team-mate Aleix Espargaro qualified on pole, won the Sprint and was fourth in the Grand Prix.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
