CARSON, CA - MARCH 06: Robbie Keane #7 of Los Angeles Galaxy celebrates after scoring on a penalty kick in the second half of their MLS match against D.C. United at StubHub Center on March 6, 2016 in Carson, California. The Galaxy defeated United 4-1. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

Maverick ViƱales took P2 on the grid for tomorrow's AmericasGP at the Circuit of the Americas, the young Spaniard waiting for most of his competition to head out at the start of the 15-minute qualifying session.

Wasting no time, his first flying lap was looking promising, but traffic on the track spoiled his efforts in the final corner. His second attempt, a 2Ā’03.912s, moved him to second place before he rushed back to the box for a fresh set of tyres.

With four minutes remaining, the young Spaniard pulled out all the stops to earn first place. He narrowed the gap to provisional pole to 0.083s with a 2Ā’03.125s, but knew he had a margin for improvement left. He made good on his promising pace, when he dropped a 2:o2.871s to briefly take over pole, before being pushed back to second after the flag was out.

Nevertheless, Vinales is perfectly satisfied to have secured his second front row start for Yamaha, 0.130s from the front.

"Honestly, I thought I had the pole. When I looked at the screen and saw that Marc was behind Valentino I said, ah, maybe he will do it, and in the end he did, so congratulations to him, because it was a nice lap for sure,ā€ Maverick said. ā€œWe pushed at 100% and the bike was working really good. We had to push for one lap, but I'm also happy about the race pace.ā€

ā€œWe still have tomorrow to improve. We will be working hard this night to find a new set-up to try and stop the bike better, but I think we did a great job and we can be there for sure. Pushing 100% from lap one until the last lap I think will be the best strategy. There were many riders on track. ā€œ