Maverick Vinales says a dashboard message sent by his Movistar Yamaha squad alerted h🔴im to Tito Rabat taking a tow off him as he edged through the first qualifying session to set-up his front row charge.

In the closing laps of Q1 Vinales was bein🍰g followed by Avintia Ducati’s Rabat who was aiming to gain from the Yamaha rider’s slipstream up the long straight. Vinales was alerted to Rabat’s position byꩵ his team via a dash message, as permitted within MotoGP rules, and bailed out of his final Q1 lap to deny his fellow countryman a tow.

The tactic worked as Vinales progressed along with Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller, edging out Rabat by just 0.102s, which saw the Yamaha rider🔜 progress to Q2 and power his way to a front row start alongside teammate and pole-sitter Valentino Rossi and Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo.

“Luckily, if he took the slipstream I would not be in third,” Vinales said. “Luckily the team sent me the message to give up on the lap which I think was tꦛhe key to being on the front row.”

Vinales missed out on a top 10 spot in FP3, forcing him into Q1, which the Spaniard says was caused by a wrong set-up change to his YZR-M1 but feels𒀰 the issue was rectified before FP4 which gives him renewed confidence at Mugello.

“This morning went qui✨te bad so I didn’t expect to be in the first row because in the morning I couldn’t improve the lap time from yesterday,” he said. “We worked hard in the garage and we know where we had the problems 🍌and where we struggled a lot.

“In FP4 we seemed to have a big step, especially with the rhythm on the used tyres, and in qua💃lifying in Q1 it was difficult and in Q2 I used one medium and then another soft. Maybe it was not the best combination but I felt good on the bike and the team is working better every day.

“꧋It is a tough moment but we have never given up and when I have confidence I can be at the front.”