Maverick Viñales became an instant star in this year’s 125cc championship and was named the Rookie of the Year after taking four wins, another five podiums and three pole positions that put him in third place in the 2011 standings.

The 16-year old who will turn 17 in two months will be staying with BQR team (who is expected to lose socialite Paris Hilton as their main sponsor) for the next two years.

The Spanish youngster got his first taste of a Moto3 racer during the post season at Valencia test riding a Honda NSF250R, but the test was disrupted by rain. The BQR team travelled to the Spanish circuit of Almeria yesterday, where he tested the FTR M311 powered by a Honda engine to prepare for the upcoming maiden season of the new Moto3 class that replaces the 125s with 250cc four-stroke machines.

Viñales also gifted with a few laps on the team’s Moto2 machine as a reward for his excellent 2011 debut season and had this to say about the Moto2 bike, “What a surprise the team gave me. It’s true that I had asked the team to let me try a Moto2 at some point, but I didn’t expect it to happen today. I was surprised by its power and acceleration, it was really fun and I want to thank the team. But the important thing is that we were able to test the FTR Moto3 and we got very valuable information to keep working throughout the preseason.”

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