Source: Supplied.

After qualifying an uncharacteristic 12th, Maverick Viñales has found comfort again in his Movistar Yamaha YZR-M1 following multiple adjustments that led the Spaniard to claim sixth at the weekend’s 2018 MotoGP season-opener.

Viñales expressed his delight in the bike during Sunday night’s race, revealing the recovered feeling came after following his direction.

Admitting there’s still room for improvement across the board, the number 25 praised the efforts of the team, acknowledging that they delivered him a competitive package for the 22-lap stint.

“In today’s race I felt really good with the bike, better than I did before,” he commented. “We followed the direction of how I wanted the bike and we improved so much, especially our rhythm. Now that we have done that, we know we have a good bike and we can focus on improving other things.

“Honestly, during the tests I didn’t try many starts, I was focused on the bike, so today’s start was bad. However, now we’ve recovered the feeling with the bike – especially for the race – we can work on other areas. We found a good set-up, but we can still improve and match the electronics more to my riding style, and we can also work on the starts.

“When you finish a race like today’s, you wish that the next GP would be held the next weekend. We’re quite motivated. I felt that, if I had been more towards the front today, I could have had a chance to win the race. I’m happy the team did such a great job, especially on Saturday in the afternoon. We found something good for our riding style and that’s perfect.”

Highly motivated, Viñales will shift his attention to the second round of the MotoGP World Championship, set to be hosted in Argentina on 8 April.