Maverick Vinales has served notice to all who thought he may struggle at Yamaha, including Marc Marquez and Honda.
While everyone marvels at the ‘new’ MotoGP sensation Maverick Vinales – his talent was apparent even at Suzuki – to Honda and Marc Marquez, their early season plight seems all too familiar. Yamaha is making the most of the Michelin tyres and the defending MotoGP champion is firmly on the backfoot.
And especially after the heartbreak of Argentina, where Marquez crashed while in the lead and opening up a gap to Vinales, it isn’t clear what Honda can do to match the sweet-handling Yamahas. As even Valentino Rossi has managed two podium positions. Even after switching to a ‘big-bang’ engine, Honda hasn’t yet found the sweet spot to allow its star rider Marquez to really put the hammer down and rise to the challenge of the rider, who is increasingly looking like MotoGP’s ‘Top Gun’.
It was very apparent even in the opening round at Qatar.
While many expected pole-sitter, Marc Marquez, to put up a fight against Vinales, it wasn’t the case. After the lights went out, the reigning world champion got off to an impressive start and was leading the race by two seconds over the chasing trio of Crutchlow, Vinales and Rossi. But, Marquez’s lead was short-lived as the Repsol Honda rider crashed out since he locked the front wheel under braking at turn 2.
The race was anything but predictable. Moments before the scheduled race start, it began to rain, meaning there was more than half an hour delay. The track conditions were also tricky, resulting in one too many safety inspections. The race was also reduced to 20 laps from 22.
However, once the lights went off, there were plenty of surprises. Rookie Johann Zarco of Monster Tech 3 Yamaha got a sensational launch off the line and led the early stages from reigning champion Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda, Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. In fact, Zarco managed to pull a gap of over a second over Marquez, which was quite impressive. However, as luck would have it, Zarco went down as he lost the front end of his Tech 3 machine. Dovizioso took the lead as a result, while Marquez and Iannone fought for second place. The battle didn’t last for long though, since Iannone too crashed out of the race. Meantime, Vinales had also caught up with the leading group, while his teammate Rossi also came along.
Vinales first overtook Marquez and then proceeded to challenge the race leader. Marquez struggled to put up a fight against the Spaniard as he apparently wasn’t able put the power down of his Honda. This also meant that Rossi managed to get past him without any drama. However, Rossi had no match for Vinales’ brutal pace or Dovizioso’s straight line speed. The closing laps would only see Vinales and Dovizioso battle for glory. And, it was the Yamaha man who emerged as victorious.
By the time you read this, we will be three races down in the 2017 season, and Marquez possibly notching up a win at the Circuit of the Americas, where he has been unbeatable.
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