VOL. 53 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 P53
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
T
here can be no more
doubt. With seven differ-
ent winners in the last sev-
en races—Lorenzo, Rossi, Miller,
Marquez, Iannone, Crutchlow
and now Vinales—this must be a
new golden age.
Today's new boy was a wel-
come return for Suzuki, for the
first time since 2007. Maverick
MAVERICK'S FIRST TIME
YOU ALWAYS
REMEMBER YOUR
FIRST, DON'T YOU?
FOR MAVERICK
VINALES, HE DID
IT IN FRONT OF
75,000 FANS
AND MILLIONS
WATCHING ON
TV—WIN THE
RACE, THAT IS.
Vinales did it in dominant style,
seizing the lead on lap one at
the end of Silverstone's famous
Hangar Straight, setting the
fastest lap on the second, and
continuing to stretch away from
an unseemly brawl in his wake.
He credited a change that
transformed the Ecstar Suzuki
GSX-RR after FP4—"a base-set-
ting change, and some electron-
ics"—that allowed him to qualify
on the front row of the grid. That,
and a good start, gave him the
chance. "The bike was feeling
perfect, and I was feeling great.
The front row was the key," he
said.
The relative lack of slow
corners on the longest track
of the year had taken the em-
phasis away from the Suzuki's
wheelspin problems, as had the
conditions on a weather-struck
