Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Maverick Viñales persevered with a soft tire choice and almost grabbed his first ‘Saturday’ points in the fourth MotoGP Sprint of the season. The Grand Prix of Qatar takes place at the impressively remodeled Lusail International Circuit for the 23rd time and the collection of fast curves north of Doha was the floodlit stage for more progression and learning for the Red Bull KTM MotoGP quartet.
For the 19th time MotoGP was able to enjoy an evening setting for the Qatar Grand Prix and the unique Lusail International Circuit offered its usual mix of 16 corners around the 5.3km layout and with three heavy braking zones. Red Bull KTM came to this staple venue on the world championship calendar with previous podium form at LIC but still chasing their first trophies of 2025 after trips to Thailand, Argentina and the USA.
Pedro Acosta found a decent groove through FP1 and Practice on Friday and went straight through to Q2 for Saturday. Maverick Viñales was also quick and was the second KTM RC16 rider in the top ten. Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini had to wade through Q1 in the setting sun and registered times for 18th and 20th on the grid. Viñales was only half a second from Pole Position after Q2 with a lap only a few tenths of a second from the old lap record. His push was enough for P6 and the second row. Acosta rode to 12th spot.
Darkness had fallen for the 11-lap Sprint. Viñales was joined by Acosta and Binder in the choice for the soft rear tire and the rubber helped for decent performance in the opening phase: Viñales made his way into the top five as Binder moved close to the top ten and Acosta had some tight and entertaining scraps. Optimum grip soon faded and it was Bastianini who made more forward progress with the medium compound as the Italian came back to 13th. Viñales almost snared 9th but was outdone on the last lap. Acosta was 11th and Binder passed the flag in 14th.
The 22-lap Grand Prix will begin at 20.00 local time and 19.00 CET.
Maverick Viñales, 6th in qualification, 10th in the Sprint: “A good day to be honest. We made a mistake with the tire choice for the Sprint but the qualifying was decent and I had a great feeling on the bike; I could put it where I wanted and adapted my style for the strong points. It is all about timing and learning, and we’re positive. We need some more information with the tires…but I think we can be happy with the steps we have made in the races so far.”
Pedro Acosta, 12th in qualification, 11th in the Sprint: “Difficult. We were quite convinced with the soft tire and we went for it but our chatter problem is still hard to manage anyway. We tried some settings from last year and this gave me back the good feelings I had in braking and the problems I had in Austin were gone…but the chatter is quite critical and we need to see what we can do for tomorrow.”
Enea Bastianini, 20th in qualification, 13th in the Sprint: “A complicated day but we have been trying to improve and have modified the setting quite a lot. The solution we found seemed to work for the Sprint race and my confidence came back a bit. I tried to recover as many positions as I could and made it to 13th. Taking the medium tire meant a good strategy for tomorrow.”
Brad Binder, 18th in qualification, 14th in the Sprint: “Definitely not the right tire choice but I was having other problems and ran off track four times. It was very tricky and we need to get things under control for tomorrow. We need to try and figure it out but we’re all pushing to solve it. I think we’ll be OK because the guys have some ideas in the pocket but at the moment we know our limit and cannot go over it.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “Of course our general performance in the Sprint today could be better but we feel we have made a step forward by understanding our needs and requirements. Perhaps the tire choice this evening didn’t help us to prove our current potential but we’ll see more of that tomorrow. We’ll apply what we have learnt here so far and go again.”
