On Friday, after the first practice session of the German GP, Maverick Vinales was very confident about his chances of victory. He had just beaten the Sachsenring track record and was three and a half tenths ahead of his nearest rival, an abyss on the German circuit! Two days later, the Aprilia rider found that, once again, his performance had dropped over the course of the weekend and he was overtaken by the Ducatis.
“For several races we haven’t been at the level we would like. On Friday we manage to reach the limit, but then it’s difficult to improve, very difficult. You have to understand why. On Friday you think you can fight to win the race, and then you find yourself ten seconds behind”, he regretted at the end of the race.
After the first six laps, Vinales was in sixth position, behind Miguel Oliveira. An off-track excursion dropped him to the back of the group, forcing him to recover ground as the laps went by, until he finished with only four points, in 12th place. This episode is no excuse for the Spaniard, however, and does not hide the fact that his speed was less than he had hoped, as he was unable to match the times of the leaders.
“I lost about 12 seconds with all the problems, but I would have been six seconds away, without being able to fight with them. It’s interesting to understand. I also look at Miguel’s race. From the beginning of the weekend, and even this morning, I thought he could fight to win the race, but then I see he’s ten seconds away. It’s difficult to understand,” he wondered.
Maverick Viñales, Aprilia Racing Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Between his strong start to the weekend and this race, Vinales suffered a big crash in qualifying, which left him in pain on Saturday and only seventh on the grid. However, he doesn’t believe this is the reason for his poor performance in the race: “Not at all. Frankly, I’m happy that I recovered well. I was able to ride at my maximum in the race and I had no problems. It’s just that sometimes the bike behaves completely differently when you’re in a group than when you’re alone. I don’t know if I should approach the weekend differently, to try to understand the bike better when I’m in a group.”
Even ruling out any issues with the tyres, including the sometimes annoying effects of riding in a group, Vinales essentially pointed to the electronics of his Aprilia as the explanation for his difficulties: “The tyres were very consistent, they worked well. Yesterday I had a few more problems, but today it was the electronics that changed a bit. We can’t understand why.”
In similar conditions to Friday, with cooler temperatures than Saturday and better grip, the Aprilia had, on paper, all the credentials to do well. “When I was riding alone, I was able to do a low 1’21” pace, which was quite competitive, I think. But suddenly the front locked up and I started doing a lot of wheelies,” Vinales regretted.
“We have to understand why the bike behaves like this on one lap and not on another. That makes things very unpredictable. We have to understand that,” he insisted before leaving Germany. “You have to understand why it works one way on one lap and another way on another lap. When I try to attack under braking, it works differently. You really have to understand that.”
With Nina Prognon
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