Can Vinales beat Rossi in 2017?

It's hard to know what is more enticing looking ahead to the 2017 MotoGP season, even though it's still six months and six races of the current, compelling campaign away. While this is the fourth consecutive year of the same four riders on the best two bikes, a major shake-up is looming, prompted by Jorge Lorenzo's decision to move to Ducati.

That will be worth watching from the moment Lorenzo first gets on a Desmosedici GP, especially if the various circumstances such as weather and ill-fated set-up gambles continue to make his Yamaha farewell tour a frustrating one. But what will happen in his current garage, when Maverick Vinales arrives from Suzuki to be Valentino Rossi's new team-mate?

In a feat that would normally be impossible when a three-time world champion leaves, Yamaha would appear to have set itself up to still have MotoGP's strongest rider line-up in 2017 and '18. Honda with Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, and Ducati with Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso, will also have a pair of race winners but it's impossible to go past Rossi and Vinales as a combination.

You would have said that even before Vinales took his maiden premier class victory at Silverstone last Sunday, but his performance throughout the British Grand Prix weekend cemented his standing as one of the absolutely elite talents on two wheels.

There has been a nice symmetry between Vinales and Suzuki over the last 18 months, since the Spaniard made his MotoGP debut and the Japanese manufacturer returned after three seasons away. Suzuki took a punt on a rookie, and they have grown together over the course of 30 grand prix weekends, including massive steps forward in 2016.

Vinales' own career trajectory has been amazing. It seems so long ago given we've had two other new winners since, but remember that run approaching six years between wins for Ducati, finally ended by Andrea Iannone at the Red Bull Ring last month? When Ducati had last won, in October 2010, Vinales was still a month away from winning the Spanish/European 125cc championship.

What Vinales has shown since stepping up to the world stage through 125cc, Moto3 and Moto2 was massively impressive, and that has continued in MotoGP with Suzuki.

His more-experienced team-mate Aleix Espargaro dominated qualifying between the pair last year, it took Vinales until the 10th race to qualify ahead and the final ledger was 14-4 in Espargaro's favour. Vinales generally raced well, though, to finish just eight points and one place behind in the standings.

Vinales flew during pre-season testing and by the time he got to Qatar in March and it emerged Lorenzo had not signed the new Yamaha contract he requested, and that Ducati wanted him, it was obvious that Vinales was the number one target.

Since then, Vinales has done a number on Espargaro, who had a three-season headstart in MotoGP, to the point that Suzuki elected to replace him as well when Vinales made his Yamaha decision. Qualifying between the pair is 10-2 in Vinales' favour, only Marquez over Pedrosa has a better record so far this year. After his Silverstone win, Vinales is up to fourth in the championship, 65 points and eight places ahead of Espargaro.

He lost a couple of opportunities for good results early with slow starts, for instance in Qatar, but a crash in Argentina when a maiden podium was on the line is the only real blot in Vinales' copybook. He made up for that when he claimed third place in France a month later, but for much of the season he has been frustrated.

The Suzuki has been shedding rear grip when temperatures have risen or when it rains, prompting Vinales to joke it was the "champion of Fridays" at Silverstone last weekend. That has actually been a good sign from Vinales, in the strength of his character and self-belief. He didn't just accept it as a limitation and utter general noises about progress, he felt he was doing everything he could and wanted to push Suzuki to find a fix.

He was impressive, too, and especially for a 21-year-old, while making the call between staying at Suzuki and going to Yamaha next year. There was no meltdown, no going into his shell and absolutely no signs that it had any impact on his riding.

It is perhaps a little bit unexpected that Vinales had to wait to become MotoGP's fourth new winner of the year at Silverstone, given his and Suzuki's progress. Suzuki has all-but wiped what was a notable horsepower deficit in 2015, and its seamless gearbox has also helped. They have been paired with a delightfully-sweet-handling chassis that is particularly in its element in high-speed corners and changes of direction.

At Silverstone, with cooler conditions playing into Suzuki's hands, Vinales was impressive to watch through the fast and flowing first sector - Copse, Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel in MotoGP. As he pointed out, though, the key to the weekend was that Suzuki made a breakthrough in the wet between fourth practice and qualifying on Saturday. With that, Vinales found three seconds of relative pace, going from a lowly 17th to securing third on the grid.

Lining up on the front row rather than mid-pack as might have been the case, he blitzed the first start to the race, flying past Rossi and polesitter Cal Crutchlow on the run out of Copse and into Maggotts. The red flag could have thrown Vinales but it didn't and while he had to wait until Abbey to take the lead in the restarted race, he simply rode away from the field when he was there.

It was never in doubt. It was the performance of a man completely in sync with his machine and unfazed by any pressure that may be attached to leading for the first time or the prospect of a maiden MotoGP win. His first 10 flying laps were in the 2m02s barrier. Crutchlow, Rossi and Marquez managed 12 between them during the same phase of the race, before tyres started going off.

Suzuki had gone missing a bit since visiting the Le Mans podium, during a string of hotter and/or wetter races. But in the British GP, Vinales claimed its first MotoGP win since 2007, and its first in a dry race since the Kenny Roberts Jr won its last title in '00.

And you wouldn't bet against them winning again - think Phillip Island in October, for instance - before Vinales leaves for Yamaha, where he'll come up against Rossi. Or perhaps it could be viewed as Rossi coming up against Vinales?

"I am very worried for next year with Maverick," Rossi admitted last Sunday night at Silverstone.

"But not from today, I already know his potential. Because today he won and lot of people will speak about this victory but all the people that work in MotoGP, they already know from a long time his talent.

"I knew from the moment that he signed for Yamaha that he will not be easy, that I cannot relax. But I'm happy for him, for the result, and for the team Suzuki because I have a lot of friends there and it's a great achievement."

One of those "great friends" Rossi has at Suzuki is its project leader Davide Brivio, Rossi's right-hand man during his first stint at Yamaha and the man who led Suzuki's push to sign Vinales.

"They already have a very good relationship now and they are both professional and it could be a good combination from a human point of view," Brivio said after Vinales' move was announced.

The relationship between Rossi and Lorenzo has varied between civil, toxic and non-existent during their seven-and-a-half years as team-mates. An infamous wall was even needed in the garage to separate them before Rossi's Ducati misadventure.

Rossi and Vinales are currently many steps ahead of that. The sight of one following the other during a practice or qualifying session is common, something Lorenzo noted as a "strategy" after qualifying at Mugello in May.

A great deal of respect clearly exists between them, despite an age difference of 16 years. There are 16-year-olds racing in Moto3 this year...

But being pals and helping each other out on track is much easier when you ride for different manufacturers, and when - in Rossi's case - you have a bit of a safety barrier in Yamaha's overall performance advantage over Suzuki.

That all changes next year. Rossi has taken his own performances, especially in qualifying, to new levels in 2016. His speed on the Michelin tyres is a cut above what he managed relative to Lorenzo and Marquez in the Bridgestone days. He should really be fighting Marquez for the title, if not for some costly errors in races and that Mugello engine failure.

This next Yamaha deal is likely to be Rossi's last in MotoGP, and his last two chances to take that elusive 10th title across all three classes. Obstacles will not really be welcomed, part of Rossi would surely have preferred to have a team-mate closer to the dynamic at Honda.

Instead, the super-fast Vinales arrives to ride the best bike on the grid. And not just ready to win, but as a winner. There is no reason to suspect Vinales will not like what he finds when he gets on the M1, and when he does, the bulk of Lorenzo's crew is sticking around and the experience of the likes of Ramon Forcada will be invaluable in getting up to speed in his new surroundings.

On the other side of the garage, Rossi will be welcoming, but surely only to point. He'll know that life won't suddenly get easier when Lorenzo leaves.