Maverick Viñales may have finished 14th on paper at the Qatar Grand Prix due to a tyre pressure disqualification, but his performance told a whole different story. Even KTM’s boss, Pit Beirer, said this was the real deal.

As it could be seen, KTM has been struggling so far in the 2025 season. With the vibration issues, the riders have found it tough to compete at the front. And after a disappointing sprint race in Qatar, where all four riders took a gamble on soft tyres, it didn’t work out. So, going into Sunday, things didn’t look promising either. But then the race started—and with it came Viñales’ amazing performance.

Viñales, who had recently joined KTM, showed impressive one-lap speed. Even though he started sixth on the grid, he later took the lead for a moment, shocking almost everyone—including Marc Márquez. Still, he held tight in second place and finished just 1.8 seconds behind Márquez.

It was a huge success for KTM—until the post-race penalty was announced.

Unfortunately, Viñales received a penalty for having tyre pressure below the legal minimum. This added a time penalty that dropped him to 14th place.

But even with that result, all the behind-the-scenes footage from MotoGP's official channels showed KTM bosses praising his performance.

“That performance was real,” said Pit Beirer in a MotoGP.com behind-the-scenes video. “It wasn’t about luck. He was strong and consistent the whole race.”

Tech3 team boss Hervé Poncharal also said in the same video:

“Márquez had to push to the limit in those last laps just to get away. Bagnaia gave up. That shows how strong Maverick was.”

Viñales’ crew chief, Manu Cazeaux, explained the tyre pressure situation:

“I thought we could go a little lower because the chance of him riding alone was small,” he said in MotoGP.com video. “But in the end, we played it safe. Or so we thought.”

The team had assumed that Viñales would race in a tight pack, so the tyre pressure was set based on that scenario. But when he fought at the front, running in clean air, the pressure dropped below the minimum of 1.8 bar.

Poncharal later told Crash.net:

“Viñales actually let Márquez through after he received a warning on his dashboard about the low pressure. Sadly, he missed the 60% race distance threshold by just a couple of laps—which was enough to trigger a penalty.”

Adding to the frustration, Márquez pulled away in the final laps, meaning Viñales had no one in front to help him raise the tyre temperature and pressure.

Still, his Sunday performance was phenomenal. Even with the penalty, Viñales showed that he has serious potential—and so does KTM.