How Vinales went from 'kitty' to MotoGP 'beast' at Misano

"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'.

"The bike is what it is, we have these problems. I need to get used to that and don't get too enthusiastic when I do that kind of qualifying."

After setting off the airbag in his leathers in celebration of his first Misano pole, he was much more subdued after Saturday at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. But it wasn't just his approach to celebrating qualifying that had changed across the second Misano weekend.

"Normally you don't work really for the race because you don't have full tank, and you just put full tank in the warm-up," he explained. "So after the warm-up you understand the reality. This weekend we changed so much. Every exit in FP1, FP2 [the bike] was more like race set-up and it's what we change and seems that it works good. So, we will try to replay in the next race."

As predicted, Vinales had a great test on the Tuesday beforehand, branding it the "best test of the year". The new carbon swingarm, exhaust and suspension set-ups Yamaha trialled yielded brilliant results. But it was a deception. Under more normal race weekend conditions, when the track is no longer saturated in Michelin rubber, he was back to square one.

"Unluckily we didn't find anything," Vinales said when asked by Autosport after Friday's sessions if he'd made a breakthrough on race set-up from the test. "We thought yes, but then with the race set-up we didn't find anything. We tried to replay fuel tank [level from the race], same amount of power on the bike and [we had] the same problems. So, tomorrow I will try something very different.

"We focused a lot on the rear side and trying to find more grip. It's three years where I don't find more grip on the bike. So, I don't want to lose more time with the rear. We know the rear works in one way and we need to try to live with that."

The changes to the bike were only part of this improvement, though. In the San Marino race he was the only rider to run the hard rear tyre. At the time, he denied this had anything to do with his drop in pace

From FP3 on Saturday Vinales focused more on finding confidence from the front end of his M1 to maximise braking, and especially the Yamaha's key strength of corner speed, to see if he could extract the maximum from his bike that way.

"We changed a lot the balance of the bike and I felt straightaway much better under braking," he said when Autosport asked what specifically he fixed on the front end after his victory on Sunday. "I could take out all the potential we have on the bike for braking and corner speed. So, I increased the front confidence and I felt very good."

His race pace in FP4, a 19-lap run on a medium rear tyre, featured 13 low-mid 1m32s laps. Crucially, he was straight into the 1m32s on his second flying lap, improving from a 1m32.956s to a 1m32.361s on the following tour. All the signs pointed to his pace early in the race being stronger. By contrast, it took him until his 15th lap in FP4 at San Marino to break into the 1m32s barrier.

The changes to the bike were only part of this improvement, though. In the San Marino race he was the only rider to run the hard rear tyre. At the time, he denied this had anything to do with his drop in pace.

Then after taking pole for the Emilia Romagna GP, he revealed: "When you work all weekend and the guy in charge of your tyres says the hard is the best choice for you, you put on the hard. So, I don't think we worked good in that area because other Yamahas were with the medium, they say to me the hard is the best option for my riding style.

"But in the end it was not true, it was not correct. So, we make many mistakes in many races, which my potential was good but tyre choice was the wrong one."

So, with his team working more cautiously and his race set-up sorted, Vinales broke through. Briefly losing the lead to the Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller off the line, Vinales struck back at Turn 4 and led for the next five laps - his pace immediately in the mid-high 1m32s. Francesco Bagnaia on the other Pramac would pass him on lap six.

"The difference in the setting allowed me to ride very mad at the beginning of the race," he explained. "I could brake late and keep a tighter line, and this is the most important especially for the riders behind. I thought in the first race [at Misano] in lap one when Miller overtook me I lost the race there, and I didn't want to repeat the same. So, I focused all the weekend to brake late and close the door. And it's something we worked good, because I got passed because of a mistake, not because we were slow on any sector."

That he was seemingly destined for second didn't really matter, as the power deficit Vinales had to the Ducati wasn't anything he could fix. The key thing was the consistency of his pace, which only dropped into the 1m33s once between laps two and 20 - and that 1m33.599s was a result of the mistake he made at Turn 5 that allowed Bagnaia to come through. And behind, the gap to the chasing Pol Espargaro on the KTM and SRT's Fabio Quartararo continued to grow and was as large as 4.8s even three laps from the end.

His gap to Bagnaia ahead hovered around 1.3s-1.5s, but the Ducati's brute force on the run from Tramonto at Turn 10 to Turn 13 that makes up sector three ensured any advantage Vinales gained from his planted Yamaha in sectors one and two was negated. But the Yamaha rider still took the positives from this.

"I don't know if I could catch Pecco, he was very fast, especially in sector three," said Vinales. "Everything I gained in the first two sectors, I lose in sector three. So, I don't know. Every time I see I was closer and all the time the team was pushing me, it means I was doing something good on track."

Whether Bagnaia's crash from the lead on lap 21 had anything do with the relentless pressure Vinales was still mounting despite the stagnant gap is up for debate. The Pramac rider claims he touched a visor tearoff or "something dirty" on track. But Vinales was strong enough to be in the position to capitalise on it, which has rarely been the case over the last few seasons, and secure his first win since last November's Malaysian Grand Prix.

What isn't up for debate, at least as far as he's concerned, is this Emilia Romagna GP win does not mark the emergence of a new Vinales - rather, this is the Vinales deemed good enough to replace triple MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo back in 2017 unchained.

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"Well, actually I think finally Maverick had never gone, he's always here - we just needed to take the maximum from our bike," he said when Autosport asked if this victory was the return of the real Vinales.

Whether what Vinales found at Misano last weekend will carry over also remains to be seen. But, for the first time in a long time, he looks like the top gun Yamaha hired him to be

He later added: "It was good to take out all the doubts that many people was giving me, especially why I was not fast on Sundays. From the data I understand very well why I was not fast on Sundays. So, very happy to be back on top. But we need to keep the feet on the ground, I understand very well how I need to work and now we need to continue. I just want to congratulate the team because they don't give up, and finally win or lose we are all one package and I think today we need to be happy."

Vinales is now firmly back in title contention as he has closed to within one point of leader Andrea Dovizioso and sits equal on 83 points with future team-mate Quartararo (not insignificantly having beaten him on track for the first time in 2020). Whether he's actually in the hunt is a bit of an unknown given it will largely hinge on his being able to lead from the off in races to negate the M1's inability to overtake due to its lack of power.

And whether what Vinales found at Misano last weekend will carry over also remains to be seen. But, for the first time in a long time, he looks like the top gun Yamaha hired him to be...