Maverick Vinales has suggested he w𒁃ould have been MotoGP world c🎃hampion in 2017 with Yamaha if they ‘didn’t touch’ the 2016 M1 he initially tested.

After just over a ꦜseason with Suzuki, Vinales signed a two-year deal to join the factory Yamaha squad for🌺 his third campaign in the premier class in 2017.

Vinales topped the 2016 Valencia test on that year’s M1 and won the first two races of 2017, before adding a third at the Frenc🎉h Grꦰand Prix after a battle with team-mate Valentino Rossi.

The Spaniard led the standings by 17 po🙈ints after the point, but Vinales wouldn’t win again until the 2018 Australian GP, as he slid to third in the 2017 standings.

Vinales remained with Yamaha 🥃until midway through 2021, when his relationship with the brand soured irreparably and he was removed with immediate effect after he was found to have deliberately over-revved his M1’s engine in the Styrian GP.

Speaking in a DAZN documentary about himself, Vinales believes he could h꧟ave won the title on the M1 h🌸e tested at the end of 2016 and pleaded with Yamaha “not to touch it” over the winter.

“When I joined Yamaha, I came in like a ro๊c🧸ket,” he said.

“I arrived with a clear idea, 🍌a clear objective 🍃and that's the only thing I asked Yamaha for: ‘I want to be world champion.

“I don't want to be anything else, don't make me be anything else because I want to be this, I'm not interested in anythi�🐎�ng else’.

“When I got on the Yamaha at the V🅘alencia test, I fell in love with it. I asked them not to touch it. I wanted this one, which was the bike that Jorge [Lorenzo] left.

“[I told Yamaha] ‘bring me this bike ꦓto Qatar, with this I'm going to win the world championship. But when I got to Sepang [for the pre-season test], ‘where is that bike?’

“I won the first race, I won the second, I won at Le Mans, it was one of the best days of my life, I won a battle ag🌳ainst my idol, Valentino Rossi.

“But i🎐n Barcelona there was a wave of chan🍬ges. I didn't understand anything.

“I told them not to touch the bike.”

Vinales joined Aprilia for the final rounds of 20🌠21, where he remained until the end of 2024, win🌜ning one grand prix in that time.

He joins KTM with the Tech3 squad for 2025, stating about the move: “Now I have come to the conclusion that t꧅here are two sides: either you are the challenger or you go to the dark side.

“Either you go to KTM or you go to Ducati.

“At Ducati ♚it is very difficult to win. How are you going to beat the official team?

“It is v🌺ery complicated, you have the same bike, but not the same weapons. So I only had one option, to go to KTM and be the challenger.”