Maverick Vinales to use Argentina MotoGP practice for overtaking

Yamaha rider Vinales took pole position at Losail but dropped to seventh with a poor start, and could not recover.

Afterwards Vinales admitted that while he could be fast when running alone earlier in the weekend, during the race he was forced to adjust his riding style with others around him and could not replicate that pace.

He therefore plans to simulate race conditions in the practice sessions for this weekend's Termas de Rio Hondo race to find a way to overtake his opponents.

"I think our problem is that in Qatar I didn't ride behind a rider [in practice], I didn't prepare really well where I could overtake," he said.

"In Qatar I didn't think this was going to be a problem because I was so fast in the practices, I thought I could overtake very easily. But somehow during the weekend I never found a rider, I was quite on my own.

"Here we're going to try to be in the mix in the first laps in the practice, trying to understand where we need to improve or where I can brake later or where I am strong or weak.

"That is very important, I will start in the mix and see how the other bikes are working.

"Sometimes it is difficult to overtake because I use very different lines from the others, I use a lot of corner speed so I get a little bit stuck when I am behind a rider.

"On another hand in some races I was pushing and I could overtake quite well. We need to understand the way to go in that track.

"It is trying to find a way to overtake without taking [away] the good points of the bike, that is the corner speed."

Vinales said he was only "angry" with himself in Qatar and not with the Yamaha bike, which he believes is working well.

"For me, it was very positive," he said of the weekend as a whole. "For sure the result was not what I expected, because I expected to be in front, push, and try to keep away and try to be really fast, but after the race I was not angry.

"Finally we knew the point to improve: the overtaking area. I was angry with myself because I didn't give the best, I could make a better race if I was in the front, but I didn't get really angry.

"It was positive to have this problem right now - that is in the first race, not in race seven. Now we know what to improve."