Maverick Viñales rockets Movistar Yamaha towards the championship

After the long four month off season, MotoGP kicked off the race season on March 26 in Qatar, following up with the second race of the season on April 9 in Argentina. With multiple team changes for the riders, all eyes are on Valentino Rossi’s new Movistar Yamaha teammate, Maverick Viñales, who started off the season on top of the podium.

The twenty-two year old former Moto3 champion shocked MotoGP fans during the off season testing with Movistar Yamaha. Previously riding for Suzuki, Viñales signed a contract with Movistar Yamaha, replacing Jorge Lorenzo who moved to the Ducati team.

Testing began in Valencia for the riders and while Viñales was not used to his new bike, he topped off the timesheets ringing in a lap of about one minute and twenty-nine seconds in the second sessions. His time in the second session was about one second faster than 2016 MotoGP champion Marc Marquez.

Testing moved on to Sepang, Qatar and Phillip Island, all ending with Viñales topping the timesheets. The Yamaha rider seemed invincible after testing, however, most fans were still skeptical up until the start of the first race of the season.

Race day in Qatar for MotoGP riders began with a rain delay with officials on the grid arguing over when the race would start. After thirty minutes passed, the riders were out on the track start of their season. Johann Zarco, the former Moto2 rider pulled up towards the front for the first few laps, only to crash out on lap six.

With Zarco out, Viñales took to the front of the pack with Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso in tow. Rossi and Dovizioso carried a back and forth battle for second, allowing Viñales to inch further and further away.

On the final lap, Viñales secured first place, Dovi claimed second and Rossi took third while Marquez took fourth. The Movistar Yamaha team began the season with both riders on the podium and previous team member, Jorge Lorenzo, was found to place all the way back in eleventh.

Taking home the first win of the season, Viñales was at the top of the leaderboard for the championship title. This was, however, still the first race and were still seventeen more rounds to go where anything could happen.

One week later on April 9, the MotoGP riders arrived in Argentina for round two of the season. It was Marquez that led the race, but fortunately for Viñales, Marquez crashed out on the fourth lap through the second turn.

The pace was set by Viñales for the rest of the race as it had in Qatar one week prior. Behind Viñales was Rossi with the LCR Honda team rider, Cal Crutchlow, battling for the second place position. Since Rossi was caught up in fighting for the second position with Crutchlow, Viñales was once again able to build up a larger and larger gap between himself and the rest of the pack.

Once Viñales crossed the finish line, twenty-two year old rider marked his name down is history as becoming the first rider since Wayne Rainey in 1991 to win the first two opening races of a season. Rossi took second and Cal Crutchlow rounded out the podium in third. Yamaha was still dominating the rest of the other teams with both of its riders once again on the podium.

MotoGP fans across the globe were shocked that Viñales had secured a second win, living up to all the hype surrounding him. With a second win in a row, Viñales secured 50 points, putting him in an even better position for the championship title.

While at the moment Viñales remains on top, there are still sixteen round left to go in the championship where anything can happen. Will Maverick Viñales secure his first MotoGP championship title or will Marc Marquez retain his championship title? The only way to find out is to let the riders leave it all out on the track and fight for the title.

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