Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales said that he needs to pull away from the Ducati riders early if he is not to be held back by his top speed disadvantage after qualifying in the middle of the front row in Thailand.

The factory Yamaha man will line up behind Fabio Quartararo after qualifying just over a tenth behind his Yamaha stablemate, and a whole row ahead of the Ducati trio of Danilo Petrucci, Jack Miller and Andrea Dovizioso who will start in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

Despite the nature of the circuit helping the Yamaha riders more than two weeks ago in Aragon, the Spaniard believes he needs to try and pull a small gap on the Ducati’s to not have his race ruined by his top speed deficiency.

“Has been two days positive, especially in mixed conditions we were quite fast, especially on wet tyres,” said the 24-year-old.

“Then in FP4 we made a jump from yesterday, we improve quite a lot in the rhythm, which we were looking forward to try and improve and be closer to Marc.

“Tomorrow we have a good chance, we will push from the first corner and see. But anyway, we be very improve the tyre management, because normally here the tyre drops quite a lot, so we will see, but I am happy we made quite a good job all the weekend.

“We lose a little bit, but not like in Aragon. We still lose a little but for sure, but we know that we have other strong points where we will profit.

“But as I said, it will be important from the beginning to push, try to make a small group because if not it will be difficult with the Ducati guys and we will try to push from the beginning.”