All lined up and ready to go at it again on the long distance from his 6th place on the grid, there was a hungry Maverick Viñales who took a rocket start when lights went out at 20:00 for 22 laps. ‘Top Gun’ kept his line to exit the first corner in 3rd, but he then had to battle it out with a charging Alex Marquez who pushed for the top 3. Maverick went 4th, and Fabio Di Giannantonio followed alongside. 5th after one hectic first lap,  there was Franco Morbidelli escaping at the front with a small gap on Marc Marquez. Behind, there was Francesco Bagnaia making a solid comeback after a stunning start. On lap 3, a contact between Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio powered Maverick to 3rd entering lap 4, but it did not take long for Bagnaia to go through the Spaniard. That gave him a good wheel to follow, that’s for sure. Maverick appeared to be on fire, clocking a crazy 1’52.704 on lap 6 which allowed him to keep contact with the Ducati Factory duo ahead. Maverick continued to pressure Bagnaia, and he provided a beautiful overtake in the last turn of lap 7 on the two-time world champion. An on-fire top gun was not stopping there. As just 0.170 seconds separated him from Marc Marquez on lap 8, Maverick made a small gap on the 63. As he got closer to Marquez in the straight, Maverick benefited from the splistream to overtake the number 93 in T1, to 2nd, and shortly after, he attacked on Morbidelli to take the lead after just 11 laps.  Maverick held in there and kept the lead for 5 laps until Marc Marquez started to increase the pressure. Despite a great defense, Marquez overtook Maverick on lap 16. Top Gun settled behind Marquez who made the extra effort to escape ahead. Behind, Bagnaia increased the rhythm to try to get that P2, but Viñales was not letting go, clocking an insane late 1’52.8 on lap 18 that allowed him to breathe better and dig the gap with the chaser. He held on until the end, to see the checkered flag in 2nd. Later, Maverick was handed a 16-second penalty due to low tyre pressure, meaning that he officially finished in P14. Anyway, we all celebrated a beautiful race together, one that gives us hope for the future ahead. Well done Maverick, and well done team!

Starting from P20, there was a Enea Bastianini hungry for more after a strong Tissot Sprint on Saturday which saw him take the 13th place in just 11 laps. Bestia was therefore looking forward to more laps under the spotlights of the Lusail International Circuit. When lights were out at 20:00 local time (UTC+3), Bastianini quickly gained one position to exit lap 1 in 19th in contact with World Champion Jorge Martin. Soon he moved past the new number 1 to 18th to sit behind Raul Fernandez, and continued to progress to 17th with Jack Miller at sight after three laps. Both Bastianini and Miller moved past a dropping Raul Fernandez, and that was already P16 after 4 laps. Once the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider settled a bit more into his pace, he could overtake Jack Miller in lap 6 to next have his eyes on Alex Rins. After many struggles to find a path through the Yamaha Factory rider, Enea finally made it to 15th with an overtake on lap 12 which unlocked him a bit more. The pace was great, in the low 1’53, similar to the group at the front. Soon he could also overtake rookie Ai Ogura, but a small mistake caused him a loss of 2 positions. Enea quickly re-focused, and gained back those 2 positions in no time to 13th, now behind Luca Marini with just six laps to go. 0.8 seconds separated Enea from Marini as four laps remained, but the HRC rider made the extra effort to move past Brad Binder whose performance appeared to drop. That was enough for Bastianini to provide a last and late effort to progress to 12th, a position he kept until the end. His teammate's late penalty meant that he officially finished 11th. Good job once again from the back of the grid for Enea Bastianini who brings home a few points after another strong remontada. He will look forward to continuing improving as we head next to Europe for the iconic Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, on April 25-26-27.