In Monday’s test, Maverick Vinales discovers that one of his two bikes was not working properly – this is the cause of problems in Jerez
After his victory at the Grand Prix in America, Maverick Vinales traveled to his home race in Jerez with high expectations. However, the Aprilia rider was unable to build on his recent performance in Spain. Vinales crashed out in the sprint and saw the chequered flag in ninth place in the Grand Prix.
After the race, he was still puzzling over the reasons. Among other things, he again blamed the starts. But after the Monday test, Vinales came to a different conclusion, as it was possible to make intensive comparisons.
“The lap times were really competitive, as was the rhythm. So something was missing at the weekend. We have to understand that. The bikes were really good on Monday. We need to understand why it didn’t work.”
“We need to understand what is happening with bikes A and B. I was doing high 1’36s on the rhythm, but in the race I was only doing high 1’37s. So there is a difference between bike A and B.”
“Unfortunately, I rode the race with the bike that I didn’t feel so competitive with,” said Vinales. “That means we really have to look at the smallest detail.” After the crash in the sprint, he had to switch to the other bike for Sunday.
But it was only when he directly compared the two RS-GP bikes during Monday’s test that he realized that something was wrong with one bike. “Because I crashed on bike A on Saturday, we played it safe and then took bike B.”
“But to be honest, we didn’t realize that it wouldn’t work. Already in Austin and also this weekend, I said that I couldn’t decelerate well with bike B. We put that down to a problem with the front brake.”
“But it wasn’t a problem with the front brake. We more or less found out what it was during the test. Now both bikes work pretty similarly. That’s a big step for the future, because I could have been much faster in the race.”
“We have to be aware of that. Every race we learn more and more so that the team is better prepared.” Due to the mixed Jerez weekend, Vinales has dropped from third to fifth place in the championship standings
