"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." That's how Maverick Vinales described his fall from grace in the San Marino Grand Prix, when he went from threatening domination to ending up 5.3 seconds off what is essentially the 2019 Yamaha of race winner Franco Morbidelli, in sixth place.
It was an all too familiar tale for Vinales: stamp his authority in practice, rip up trees in qualifying to take pole, and then spend the opening half of the race wobbling about as grip and bike balance evaporated on a full fuel tank.
"Do I need to change my riding style 70 times in one weekend to make the bike work?" Vinales replied when asked by Autosport after the first Misano race how to fix those issues. "Then the race arrives and I have the same problems. It's difficult. I don't really want to be all the time saying 'the bike is not working'.