Maverick Vinales’ Qatar MotoGP podium hailed as “real” by KTM boss

Vinales stunned with ride to ꦍsecond in Qatar GP before b♔eing penalised

Maverick Vinales, Tech3 KTM, 2025 Qatar MotoGP
Maverick Vinales, Tech3 KTM, 2025 Qatar MotoGP
© Gold and Goose

Maverick Vinales’ ride to second in the MotoಌGP Qatar Grand Prix prior to a penalty has been hailed as “real” by KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer.

KTM has had a touꦫgh start to the 2025 campaign, with persistent vibration problems s🧜tunting its hopes of battling for regular podiums and race wins.

After 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:a difficult sprint in Qatar where tꩵhe four KTM riders’ soft tyre gamble backfired, there was little hope of things improving for the full-length race last Sunday at Lusail.

But 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Maverick Vinales, who qualified sixth and has impressed with his one-lap speed this year oꦐn his switch to the RC16, stunned when he took t♏he lead on lap 11 of 22 and held that position until lap 16.

Despite dropping behind eventual winner Marc Marquez, Vinales was able to hold on🥀to second comfortably and was j💯ust 1.8s adrift of the Ducati rider at the chequered flag.

A post-race tyre pressure penalty ul𝔍timately dropped him to 14th.

In a behind-the-scenes video issued by MotoGP’s official website, a discussion between KTM management offered an insight into how the brand’s motorsport bos🐠s v🔥iewed Vinales’ race.

“The performance was real,” Beirer said.

“The whole race, consistent. Not lucky, nothing [worked in𓄧 our fꦐavour].”

Tech3 team boss Herve Poncharal added: “Marc Marquez was like☂ t💜his [head down]. He had to give everything on the last two, three laps to make a break. Bagnaia gave up.”

Vi🍸nales’ crew chief Manu Cazeaux is seen in the same video in discussion with his team after notification was given of t🍰he tyre pressure investigation.

“I wanted to do a little bit less [pressure] because the risk of being alone was small,” he said, referring to the calculation teams have to make on setting front tyre pressures based on how they think the race might play out. “But in the end we said,♔ ‘Ok, let’s go’.”

Starting from sixth, KTM felt a top five was the absolute maximum on offer after its difficult sprint and would have set Vinales’ tyre pressure to cope with the expected group of ridersꦍ it thought he would have ahead of him.

Poncharal told 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:wuqian0821.꧃com in an exclusive interview that Vinales let Marquez through in response to a warning on his dashboard about ty💃re pressures and was ultimately only a couple of laps outside of the 60% distance threshold of runniꦑng inside the 1.8 bar minimum.

The Tech3 team boss also noted tඣhat Marquez pullꦺing away like he did contributed to Vinales’ penalty.

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