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Maverick Vinales Wins For Yamaha In Qatar MotoGP 2017: Here’s How It Happened

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay
Published on: 08:50 PST, Mar 26, 2017

Spanish racer Maverick Vinales won on his debut with Yamaha in Qatar MotoGP 2017. He beat Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso to win the season opener on Sunday. This season, the Spanish racer moved to a new franchise, Yamaha.

The 22-year-old racer slipped back early and took the lead with seven laps to go. His impressive performance during the winter continued in Qatar as well. Interestingly, it was rookie Johann Zarco who led the race in the early phase. However, he fell from the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine.

Then, Dovizioso went ahead of Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone and world champion Marc Marquez for a brief period. However, Vinales went ahead of the nine-time world champion with a couple of laps still remaining. Eventually, he secured the second MotoGP win in his career. Rossi beat Dovizioso for the second position, while Marquez had a last-minute change of front tyre and secured the fourth position. Dovizioso was thrilled about his performance anyway, since he began from 10th.

Suzuki’s Iannone lowsided. A year back, he had the same fortune with his Ducati. Dovizioso unleashed the Ducati horsepower and re-pass Vinales a number of times. However, Vinales pushed his limits, with smoke rising from the rear tyre. He gained space on the final lap and sealed victory by 0.461 seconds.

The race saw an excellent debut of Aleix Espargaro for Aprilia. He finished sixth, while Pramac Ducati’s Scott Redding finished seventh. Jack Miller in his Marc VDS Honda finished eighth, and Suzuki’s Alex Rins finished ninth. It was Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Jonas Folger who finished in the 10th position.

Maverick Vinales won on his debut with Yamaha in Qatar MotoGP 2017.
Maverick Vinales won on his debut with Yamaha in Qatar MotoGP 2017. [Image by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images]

“It feels great! Honestly, the track was so difficult,” Crash quoted Maverick Vinales as explaining his feelings about the victory. “Even if the conditions were difficult we were there all the time. I’m so pleased to be with Yamaha.”

There was heavy rain in Doha. So, the race got delayed. Earlier, Saturday’s qualifying was cancelled due to the weather, the BBC reported. Moments before the scheduled start, it started raining. There was a 40-minute delay. At the same time, the race distance was reduced to 20 laps from 22.

This season, Maverick Vinales moved to a new franchise, Yamaha.
This season, Maverick Vinales moved to a new franchise, Yamaha. [Image by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images]

Earlier, Jorge Lorenzo wished for an unforgettable Ducati debut. However, he ran wide on the opening. Nevertheless, the three-time MotoGP winner recovered well to finish at the 11th position. Both Cal Crutchlow and Marquez switched to medium front tyre from hard, using the brake. However, they might be regretting the decision now. While Marquez finished fourth, Crutchlow fell twice from his LCR Honda.

Maverick Vinales in his SPA Yamaha earlier had the fastest practice time with 1m 54.316s. he also had the fastest 2017 Qatar Test time with 1m 54.330s.

The other participants in the Qatar MotoGP 2017 were Loris Baz, Hector Barbera, Karel Abraham, Tito Rabat, Pol Espargaro, Bradley Smith, Sam Lowes, Danilo Petrucci, Alvaro Bautista, and Johann Zarco.

The best lap record in MotoGP happened in 2008, when Jorge Lorenzo in his SPA Yamaha made it with 1m 53.927s. It was Lorenzo again to grab the fastest race lap in 2016 with 1m 54.927s in his SPA Yamaha.

[Featured Image by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images]

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