Vinales encouraged by strong Yamaha showing at Valencia
Maverick Vinales was encouraged to see the his future team Yamaha complete the 2016 MotoGP season in strong form, as Jorge Lorenzo ended the team's losing streak at Valencia.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Lorenzo completed his nine-year tenure at Yamaha with a lights-to-flag win, the team's first victory since June's Barcelona race, while Valentino Rossi narrowly lost out on a podium finish to Andrea Iannone in fourth.
Vinales, who secured fourth in the standings in his second and final season with Suzuki, admitted he was bouyed to see a strong performance from his future team, with which he will make his first test outing on Tuesday.
"I feel happy, because you could see on the lap times the Yamaha was really competitive and I could see when [I raced with] Valentino," said Vinales.
"Honestly, the Suzuki improved a lot during this year but still they can improve and I think they're going to do a good job.
"It's a strange feeling, now I leave my team, I go to another one it's such a strange feeling."
Despite running third after the start, Vinales said the podium was not possible, as he was quickly overtaken by both Rossi and Marc Marquez.
"It was a hard race, I thought I was going to be better in the race than what I was, it was so difficult in the end," he said.
"I was really on the limit, I nearly crashed two or three times then I say 'okay, the podium today is really not possible'.
"Anyway I'm really happy, it was the last race and we could finish fighting in the front giving our best so nothing more to say just that really happy to finish this season and happy to continue on the other one."
Additional reporting by German Garcia Casanova
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