After achieving his first podium with Aprilia in Assen, a third place, and repeating in Silverstone two weeks ago, climbing to the second step of the drawer, Maverick Viñales has between eyebrows to win his first race riding Noale’s machine, and more specifically, he has set this weekend’s race, at the Red Bull Ring , as the ideal setting to achieve it.
“Winning in Austria would be a dream for me. I get emotional and everything. It would be many hours of work, a lot of suffering, fulfilling a goal. I have a pending account with that circuit, I really want it,” said the Spanish rider in a recent report issued on DAZN .
Mack’s objective, realistic given what has been achieved in recent races, would place the boy from Rosas in the pages of history, since if he achieved it he would become the first rider to score victory with three different brands in MotoGP: Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia.
Other riders in the history of the premier class have achieved it, while some legends such as Valentino Rossi or Jorge Lorenzo, despite running for three different brands, could not achieve it.
Viñales’ first and only victory at the wheel of a Suzuki occurred on September 4, 2016 at Silverstone, it was his only victory with the Hamamatsu brand, with which he made his debut in the premier class the previous year.
With his arrival at Yamaha in 2017, the victories began to occur with greater frequency, the first on the day of his debut, in Qatar that year, repeating in Argentina, in the following race, and Le Mans that same course. Maverick won up to eight races on the M1, with which he achieved his last victory last year, again in Qatar.
After some difficult first months of adaptation to the Aprilia, Viñales is once again the competitive rider capable of winning races and no one doubts that it is a matter of time before he adds a victory to his record, which would be historic.
four precedents
Until now, in MotoGP no one has managed to win with three different brands, but during the 74-year history of the Grand Prix, there have been up to four riders who have achieved it in the premier class.
The first rider to do so was the legendary Mike Hailwood , who in 1961 won the Isle of Man 500cc race on a Norton. That same year, riding an MV Agusta, he won at Monza. In 1966 Mike the Bike signed for Honda, with which he managed to win up to eight grand prix in two years, without the British achieving the world crown for the Japanese factory.
The second driver to achieve it was another legendary, Randy Mamola , who despite never achieving the championship crown, was able to win for three different brands. In 1980 he added the first of his five victories with Suzuki; in 1984 he went to Honda, with whom he won four more races, before moving to Yamaha in 1986 and adding another four wins. Mamola came very close to being the first and only rider to win with four different makes, when he climbed to the podium of the Belgian GP (3rd) in 1988 riding a Cagiva.
Next on the list is another of the championship’s historic superstars, Eddie Lawson , who after racing six years for Yamaha between 1983 and 1988, scoring 26 wins and three championships, went to Honda in 1989 to pay to win four races and add one. new crown of 500 to his record. Before retiring, in 1992, he achieved a win for Cagiva, the third different manufacturer with which he did so.
The most recent and unexpected in this select club of winners with three different makes was the Italian Loris Capirossi , who achieved nine victories in the premier class and did so with three different makes. In 1996 he made the jump to 500cc with Yamaha and won in Australia. After returning to 250cc, he returned to the fray in 2000 achieving a surprising victory in the 500cc Italian Grand Prix riding a private Honda owned by the Pons Racing team. The best moment in Capirossi’s career was with the arrival of Ducati in MotoGP, in 2003, achieving seven wins for the house of Borgo Panigale. Like Mamola, Capirossi came close to winning with four different makes, reaching the third step of the podium with Suzuki at the 2008 Czech Grand Prix.
Photo de: MV Agusta
Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
