Throughout the weekend spent in Lombok, Maverick Viñales showed a resolutely positive state of mind. While Aprilia is going through a period of slump in terms of results, the Spanish driver presented himself at this Indonesian GP with confidence, encouraged by the progress obtained by the Italian manufacturer during the second Grand Prix which was held in Misano, and the course of the Asian event confirmed him in this sense.
On Friday, he positioned himself in the top 10, albeit narrowly, but this immediately guaranteed him a place on the first four rows of the starting grid. “Quite happy and optimistic”he hoped to grab one of the first six places and, from there, move into the right car. Qualifying, however, played a bad trick on him, because regardless of his performance, which remained up to his expectations, it was the falls of his opponents which trapped him, the exit of the yellow flags having prevented him from validating his best laps .
From then on, his hopes were somewhat compromised as he found himself tenth on the grid, a position which he slightly improved at the start of the sprint and maintained at the start of the long race. On Saturday he finished seventh in the sprint finish, and on Sunday he held on in what turned out to be an elimination race, with only 12 drivers finishing. He took the checkered flag 11″3 behind the winner (compared to 15″4 at the Emilia-Romagna GP) and sixth, leading the chasing group in which he had the advantage over Fabio Quartararo and Brad Binder.
After this Grand Prix, the best he has experienced recently and the one which brought him the most points since Assen, in June, Viñales said he was happy with what he delivered, but nevertheless not fully satisfied. “The fact is that it was a very good race. We can be happy, but not satisfied because with the pace we had, we could have fought for the podium,” he summed up at the end of the weekend. he who finished less than six seconds from third place.
“I was comfortable in 1’31″0, 1’31″1… By pushing a little, I was doing 1’30″8 or 1’30″9, and that was the pace I saw in front So I said to myself, ‘You mustn’t miss any practice sessions’. In qualifying, you have to be on the first or second row, and you have to be there from the first lap.”
Maverick Viñales was unable to take advantage of his time attack in qualifying.
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Viñales did not need long analyzes to understand that it was in qualifying that his chance to benefit from a race that would lead to many retirements, including those of Enea Bastianini, Marc Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio in front of him. “Q2 penalized me for the rest of the weekend. I took two yellow flags, I couldn’t even set a time,” he regretted.
“But I’m happy,” resumed the Spanish pilot, “because over the last seven races, it’s a weekend during which we moved forward, and not backwards. I’m satisfied with the result. We have to keep this speed for Japan, because looking at the times today, we can dream big.”
“Frankly, it’s been a long time since we had this speed,” welcomed Viñales at the microphone of the official MotoGP website. “We made up for it at the second race in Misano and here in Indonesia we showed great pace. Now we have to put everything together to have a very good weekend. What we need, basically, it’s doing [de bonnes] qualifications. So we have to focus on Japan, where I think we can do very good work again. It’s a track that I love and where I can have a very good weekend.”
With the 13 points scored in Mandalika, Maverick Viñales consolidated his seventh place in the championship, breaking away from his teammate Aleix Espargaró, caught in a fall from the start on Sunday, and closing in on Brad Binder for the second weekend in a row. Eleven points separate them before going to Japan.
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