Maverick Vinales says he needs Yamaha to react urgently on his grip woes on the track after having a struggle in the San Marino Grand Prix last weekend. The Yamaha Factory rider went ahead to smash the Misano record lap to take the pole position as there were very high expectations to be the biggest threat to the victory following the perfect practice sessions.
This however did not happen as Vinales dropped out of the podium battle finishing 6th which was 5.3 seconds later than the Petronas Yamaha winner Franco Morbidelli. There was speculation that Vinales troubles were due to his choice of being the only rider to run a hard rear tyre.
The Tuesday’s test at Misano favoured the 25-year-old rider as he topped saying it was the ‘best of the year’, the excess of Michelin rubber on track made a very huge contribution to his success on the test. With this he urged Yamaha to find a solution allowing him to have the same feel of grip as the Moto 2 Dunlop rubber on Sunday afternoons.
“I need to be quicker, so then the damage is less… So, if I’m a bit quicker in the practices, I’ll be a bit quicker in the race. We will try our maximum. For sure it’s not an easy point for us because we suffer a lot all the time on that.” Vinales said after he was asked on how he will handle the race weekend.
“But I want a reaction from Yamaha. I want them to provide me with the best, because we came from Saturday to make a lap record in qualifying, from being a beast on track, and then we were a little kitty on the track. It’s something strange. I take it with humour because it’s the only thing I can do.”
“On the test I felt good, honestly I felt incredible on the bike. We rode fast because at the end of the day I rode in 1m32s-low with a lot of laps on the tyre as the rhythm, which is good.” The Yamaha Factory rider continued
“As we know when there is Michelin rubber, there is good grip. I can do whatever I want with the bike. But when there is no grip, it is difficult to ride”
Maverick Vinales also tested the new exhaust and the carbon fibre swingarm as well as some additional settings which will be run in the Emilia Romagna MotoGP this weekend. His teammate Valentino Rossi will also be testing the new modifications on his bike.
