Sunday may have belonged to Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) but the GoPro British Grand Prix saw Yamaha riders claim three of the top five positions, with Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha) completing the podium just a whisker away from Rins and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team).
Viñales did a good job of closing the leading duo down in the latter stages of the race, with the Spaniard claiming P3 to take his Silverstone premier class podium tally up to three from his last three races in Britain. How did the number 12 feel after a solid performance?
“I was closing the gap lap by lap by just one or two tenths. It was a little and a little, but I couldn’t close it by a lot in one lap. I tried my best as always, but I think we took the maximum from our bike and more. With such long straights, this track is really about the engine so we’re happy.
“I think we missed top speed. A little bit of traction too. In many corners I was much faster but in others I was surviving. So, I think we improved the bike a lot over the weekend and that’s the most important.”
For teammate Rossi, Sunday promised so much. A dream return to the top step was certainly on the cards but having stuck with Marquez and Rins in the opening couple of laps, ‘The Doctor’ soon started to slip back, with Viñales dispatching his nine-time World Champion teammate with relative ease. Rossi explained how he immediately encountered trouble with his rear tyre as a podium battle quickly evaporated.
“It’s fourth place but we are not happy because we expected more. We wanted to fight for the podium because we started from the front row,” said Rossi, who had been looking immense all weekend.
“Especially during the practice, I always had a good pace. But today in the race it was more difficult for me as I suffered a lot with the rear tyre, and from the beginning, I wasn’t as fast as yesterday. In the second half of the race I had to slow down because I had a lot of slides.”
The Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli hosts an official two-day MotoGP™ test on 29th and 30th August, and it’s two days that Rossi feels is very important.
“The test will be very important because last year was a very, very difficult weekend. We were slow, so at the test we’ll understand if we can improve. This is so important. Of course, Misano is a special weekend for me with a lot of fans, family, friends. It’s a Grand Prix that you need double the power compared to a normal one. So we’ll try to arrive ready.”
Fortunes didn’t favour Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) after the Frenchman slid out of contention at Turn 1. However, teammate Franco Morbidelli managed to notch up his equal best finish of the season in fifth, with the Italian under two-seconds away from Rossi at the chequered flag.
Rossi may have been left wanting more, but Yamaha can still take the positives away from Silverstone after another podium for Viñales. Next up: a big weekend for Rossi in Misano.