Maverick Vinales heads into his ‘second home grand prix' at Aragon this weekend joined once again by his teammate, Valentino Rossi.
At the previous race in Misano, Viñales flew the flag for Yamaha alone and his fourth place at a very wet San Marino race was labelled as good progress by the Spaniard, as it was his first time trying the 2018 chassis in these conditions.
He currently holds third place in the championship standings, 16 points behind the joint leaders and - as the 2017 season has four more rounds after this weekend and there are still 125 points up for grabs - the number 25-rider has all to play for.
This weekend he will focus on getting his Yamaha set up for the elevation changes and multiple flowing corners at the Alcañiz track as soon as possible on the Friday, so he can make another step forward in his championship challenge in Sunday‘s race.
The young gun has stood on the podium in Aragón three times before, thanks to a third place in 2011 in the 125cc class, a Moto3 second place finish in 2013 and a Moto2 victory in 2014. Last year he just missed out on the premier class podium, securing a best MotoGP placement in Alcañiz of fourth position.
This year he fancies his chances to secure a place in the top-3.
“I'm very happy to head to Aragón because for us it's like a second home Grand Prix and we know that we can do a good performance there with the M1,” he said. “It's one of my favourite tracks because of its lay-out, in Aragón we can be very fast.”
“We are 16 points behind and we need to close that gap as soon as possible. For that reason, it's very important to push and believe that we can do it. In Misano we made a big step and I'm sure that we will do another important step this weekend. It's very important to stay focused.”
