Yamaha MotoGP rider Vinales puzzled by left-hand corner struggles

Maverick Vinales says Yamaha has been "struggling a lot" and losing time to Honda through the left-hand corners at Jerez so far in the Spanish Grand Prix weekend

Honda riders have topped every session in the first European event of 2017, with Dani Pedrosa beating factory team-mate Marc Marquez to pole and LCR satellite rider completing a sweep of the top three.

Vinales was the best of the rest in fourth and nearly 0.428 seconds adrift, saying he was lacking rear grip exiting the left-hand corners.

"What I feel is that the right side is really good, and also in qualifying we had a really good rhythm," he said.

"Especially in sector two and sector four, all of the right corners, we are good.

"But on the left side it is a little bit more hard, we are struggling a lot.

"We have a lot of spinning, especially at the beginning from the lean angle, we never stop this spinning.

"It's so difficult to make a good lap because I have to push so much on the right side.

"All the Yamahas have this problem. We have to work really hard to try to improve the set-up for the warm-up."

Asked if it was the first time he had encountered this problem, Vinales said it was, and that lapping behind Pedrosa highlighted its impact.

"I followed Dani and in the left corners it's amazing, the [Honda's] traction on the left," he said.

"On the other side, right corners, I was closing the gap.

"For me it was something strange, I don't understand.

"If I can make one step I can ride with more confidence. Now it's difficult."

HONDAS EXPECT YAMAHA TO FEATURE ON SUNDAY

Yamaha riders have won at Jerez for the last two years, with Valentino Rossi starting on pole and leading home then-team-mate Jorge Lorenzo last year.

While Rossi could only manage seventh in qualifying on Saturday, Pedrosa expects the Italian and Vinales to bounce back at what was been "normally a Yamaha track" in the race.

"I'm not sure what happened at the moment but both of them have a good bike and Valentino for example this track is one of his favourites," he said.

"Their bike is normally very consistent in the lap times, it's good for the tyres and much less physical than ours so I would not count them out for tomorrow."