MotoGP | Vinales: “Aprilia must not create expectations in Barcelona”

The sixth round of the 2024 season takes place this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and promises to be a hunting ground for Aprilia. This derives from the victories of Aleix Espargaro in the Sprint and in the race on Sunday, with Maverick Vinales who, thanks to his second position in the long race, gave Aprilia its first double in MotoGP.

Vinales said that repeating himself would be “a dream” this weekend, but he put his hands out to avoid Aprilia being burdened with expectations, given the results of 2023. “I don’t know if Barcelona is the right track for Aprilia’s return to the top step of the podium,” explained the driver from Roses. “It will definitely be a dream, but we don’t know. It’s difficult to say in this championship because everything can change.

“The tires are a little different, so the technology is new. We don’t know how it’s going to work in Montmelo, so we have to be smart enough not to have too many expectations on ourselves, to be honest. For sure, if Friday is positive, we will expect more and aim for everything. But first of all we have to see how things go there. In May there can also be a lot of rain in Montmelo. So, we’ll see,” said Vinales.

What happened at the 2023 Catalunya GP?

The Catalunya GP was the culmination of an eventful few weeks for the official Aprilia team, which at the beginning of August had celebrated Aleix Espargaro’s success at the British GP. The characteristics of the Silverstone and Barcelona circuits are similar, while the low-grip nature of the latter lends itself to the strong traction of the RS-GP, as well as Espargaro’s driving style. So the Aprilia was the bike to beat in the Catalan GP.

With Espargaro and Vinales, Aprilia had placed in first and second position in both free practice sessions on Friday, while Miguel Oliveira, riding for the RNF team, an Aprilia satellite, had set the first time in the last free practice sessions on Saturday morning. The Portuguese, initially in Q1, then moved on to the decisive qualifying phase, while the only one to have stopped the supremacy of the RS-GPs was Pecco Bagnaia with the Ducati.

But Espargaro, who started second, had outwitted the reigning world champion in the Sprint, who had won with an advantage of 1.989 seconds, while Vinales had finished third. In Sunday’s race, the Granollers rider beat his teammate by three tenths, thus obtaining his second success of the season, with Aprilia celebrating the double.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Aprilia’s winning form has faded again in 2024

At the beginning of the year, the 2024 RS-GP had received two opposing feedback from the riders: Vinales was not satisfied with it, while Espargaro was enthusiastic about the step forward made. But Maverick was able to get on the podium in Portugal after Aprilia managed to improve the balance to allow him to use his riding style correctly. A gearbox problem dashed his hopes, but his first victory with the Noale manufacturer came in Austin, a success that the driver had not seen since 2021.

Since then, however, Aprilia’s form seems to have dropped. The poor qualifying results of Espargaro and Vinales in Jerez complicated their lives, while the latter had a “wear problem” that forced him to fight for ninth place. At Le Mans, Vinales was unable to get higher than fifth, while teammate Espargaro dropped out of podium contention in the early stages to finish ninth (although two driver incidents hindered his comeback).

MotoGP is heading towards a weekend in which Aprilia is expected to do well, so Vinales was asked what the brand needs to do to break through that wall that seems to be blocking the team. “That’s a good question,” he replied. “I would like to make the step forward in the next races. Obviously we will go to Montmelo and expectations will be very high, but we have to be cautious and consider that perhaps Ducati has improved a lot.”

“He will also be strong on this track. But for the rest of the tracks, we need to check how to take the next step. Obviously there will be tracks that will go better and others that won’t. When I arrived at Le Mans I thought the weekend would be good, but the guys told me that maybe it wasn’t the best for the bike and in the end they were right,” she concluded.