The Suzuki Ecstar team arrives in Spain for the season finale at the Valencia circuit after very positive races in the far east, aware of being very close to the top in terms of performance of the GSX-RR and with the desire of a final positive showdown.
According to the maths, Maverick Viรฑales can still aim for third place in the โRiders World Championship,' being fourth with 191 points, 17 behind Yamaha rider, Jorge Lorenzo
The Gran Prix de la Comunitat Valenciana is expected to be an emotional one for Viรฑales, because it will be the final one in Suzuki colours before he moves to partner Valentino Rossi at Yamaha next year.
The positive performance and feeling found during the second-half of the season is giving him further hope for a remarkable performance at the 18th and final round of the 2016 season.
โLast year's race was not one of the best, but since then we made solid progress and we can say we are in a totally different situation,โ Vinales said. โAlready, in the test we did this year, our performance resulted in improvement, but most important factor is the steps forward we have made in the second half of the season. Now we feel we can be competitive in any conditions, and this is a great injection of enthusiasm for everyone.โ
โWe feel we can compete with the top riders and teams, and we have already proved we can be on the podium consistently - which is a good way to end a season. This race will be important because we still have some hopes for the third place in the championship. When we started the season, our objective was to end in the top-six, but then during the season our competitiveness increased a lot; maybe even more than we expected and this had increased our ambition.โ
โWe as a team are all racers, this means we always strive for the best result possible. We are already satisfied with the season, but we will try to exploit this last chance to get something even more and close these two years together in the best possible way.โ
The Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana is a facility completed in 1999 and has been hosting the GP ever since. The track is pretty tight, but the complex can hold around 150,000 fans in the stadium-style grandstands. Being the final GP of the season it will see many people coming support their heroes.
The MotoGP events are held on a 4km track comprising five right-hand corners, eight left-handers and a 650m straight, for a total distance of 120.2 km (74.7 miles) covered in 30 laps.
