The FIM Supersport 300 World Championship’s visit to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours proved fruitful for Dean Berta Viñales and the Viñales Racing Team as the Spanish teenager claimed his first points of the 2021 campaign in Race 1 for the Motul French Round before following this up with fourth place in Race 2, his and the team’s best result to date.

The Viñales Racing Team outfit had claimed a points finish prior to the French Round when Kevin Sabatucci scored 10 points at the Dutch Round in July, but Viñales was able to more than double the team’s tally for the season when he claimed 13 points for fourth place in Race 2 as well as a solitary point in Race 1 when he came home in 15^th place.

In his debut season, the 15-year-old has improved his final position in races throughout the campaign so far, moving into top-20 contention from the second round of the season at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” before he just missed out on points in Race 2 at the Autodrom Most when he finished in 16^th; just one tenth behind Harry Khouri (Fusport – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki) in the final points-paying position. Magny-Cours would prove to be the breakthrough weekend for Viñales with 15^th in Race 1 before shooting up the order in Race 2 to take fourth place, less than half-a-second behind reigning Champion Jeffrey Buis (MTM Kawasaki).

Viñales was full of praise for cousin Maverick Viñales, a nine-time MotoGP™ race winner, and Angel Viñales, who owns the Viñales Racing Team, for his step forward throughout 2021. He said: “I am very very happy, not so much with the result, but with the great step forward that we managed to take last weekend at Magny-Cours. I speak in the plural because the whole team did a great job, and it was finally shown on the track. The start of the season was not very hard for me, beyond the desire to discover a new Championship.

“We had no set goals beyond doing kilometres, gaining experience, and having fun. In Misano's races, I began to realise that I could go fast and that I was not that far from the top ten. Then we started working in another direction with all the support of Angel and Maverick, without them I would not have been able to advance like this. It took us a lot to get the bike properly set up, to get all the performance out of it on the track, and at last I feel comfortable and I can have fun. For the last three rounds of the Championship, I have no other objective than at the beginning, but now that we have found a base, that I have taken my nerves and inexperience from the first races, and that I can have a lot of fun on the track, I just want to continue working like these last races and let the rest pass.”

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