“I said, ‘Come on, Maverick!’” - Vinales dreamed of history in Qatar charge

After KTM’s rocky start to the MotoGP season, Maverick Vinales stunned by fighting for victory in Qatar, leading five laps and crossing the line in second.

A cruel post-race tyre pressure penalty later saw him classified 14th, but that couldn’t mask a breakthrough performance.

Vinales, who hadn’t finished higher than tenth this season, charged from sixth to first, overtaking the likes of eventual winner Marc Marquez to lead at mid-race distance.

That potentially put him on course to become the first MotoGP rider to win with four different brands of bike: “I saw 0.7s [lead]. I said, ‘Come on, Maverick, you can do it!’

“But I also saw Marquez was a little bit controlling the rear and the front tyre.”

Vinales couldn’t contain Marquez when the world championship leader unleashed his full speed in the closing stages.

But he stayed within 1.8s of Marquez by the chequered flag and pulled almost three-seconds clear of the other factory Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia.

“I tried at the maximum,” Vinales said. “For me, it’s more than a victory. We need to be very happy. We fought against Ducati and showed our potential with the KTM. So, that’s great.

“Of course, I believe it that I can do it,” Vinales said of the turnaround. “Obviously it’s not easy. We are fighting against amazing riders. Marc and Pecco are very, very fast.

“However, we believe in our process. We believe in our project. We believe in our KTM.

“We did a great job. We started the year in a difficult way because still I didn’t feel really good with the bike.

"But step by step I’m getting there. I know really well my potential. I just need to stay calm, patient and give the maximum like I did today.”

What was the key in Qatar?

According to Vinales, it was a combination of adaptation, bike changes and finally banishing the KTM’s persistent chatter problems - at least for now.

“The vibrations today were a little bit less,” he explained. “Also I changed a little bit the way to enter in the corners, and force more the front than the rear.

“That helped me a lot to keep a good consistent pace through all the race because I could keep a lot of corner speed.

“Still there are points to improve. Obviously, we know that that vibration is the main key to maybe get closer to Marc and Pecco.

“But today we must be happy. The bike was in a really good level compared to the previous races.”

Nonetheless, the size of the step in Qatar had been a surprise.

“I expect that every weekend I’m doing a step ahead,” the former Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia MotoGP race winner said of his adaptation to the RC16.

“I didn’t expect to make this big a step, especially for the race, but we believe we can do it.”

24 hours earlier, Vinales had been among those to make an ill-fated gamble on the soft rear tyre in the Sprint race, leaving him in tenth place.

“Yesterday we made a mistake, but we must be happy that today we turned the cards around,” he said.

“With the medium tyre, I was feeling quite good all the race. The drop was not massive, so we could keep a really good rhythm.

“Still there are some limits, but there are some good points as well on the bike. So, it was good to fight in the front to really understand where we have to improve.

“It’s obvious that from yesterday to today I have less vibration, so I was able to push more,” he underlined.

The subsequent tyre-pressure penalty cost KTM its first podium of the season, promoting VR46’s Franco Morbidelli to third for another all-Ducati rostrum behind Marquez and Bagnaia.

Had Vinales seen a warning on his dashboard about possible low tyre pressure?

“I was just looking forward. I didn’t look at anything else. I didn’t have time. I was so concentrated,” he said.

“I don’t care what will happen. I’m happy with the result and the performance. This is something we needed. Really happy.”

“Maverick used a different bike”

The next-best KTM at the finish line was Pedro Acosta, over twelve seconds behind Vinales in ninth but also pleased to have avoided the vibrations.

Vinales’ Tech3 team-mate Enea Bastianini was eleventh with Acosta’s factory colleague Brad Binder left top salvage 13th after “one of the most difficult weekends of his career”.

All four KTMs were seen trying different parts on the rear of their bikes over the Lusail weekend, with Bastianini revealing:

“Maverick has been really fast today and has done a great job, incredible.

“Maverick used a different bike compared to the other three KTM riders. But, well at the moment, we can’t do this on my one.

“But I don’t want to take anything away from Maverick because today he has done a very good job.”

Bastianini declined to explain why he couldn’t have the same bike spec as Vinales in Qatar.