Vinales' style "totally wrong" on Aprilia MotoGP bike for qualifying

Vinales will start his first race as an Aprilia rider on Sunday from 19th on the grid having found a further second in lap time on Saturday compared to Friday.

With the Aprilia having a completely different mechanical make-up to the Yamaha he rode between 2017 and the middle part of this year, Vinales found his normal way of riding in qualifying was not at all suited to the RS-GP.

“Well, I have to say, when I did the time attack, I didn’t think too much and I just kept doing the same as I was doing [on the Yamaha], and it was totally wrong,” Vinales said when asked by Autosport if he felt his riding style was more suited to the Aprilia than the Yamaha in time attack.

“I just enter too fast into the corners and I need to do the lap time in a different way.

“It is good for the rhythm, sure, but not for the time attack.

“So, I need to reset the mind, I need to make more laps to understand how to make a good qualy here [at Aprilia]. Overall, we are quite happy because we think we have a lot of margin and this is the most important thing.

“I need to understand the bike, still I need a lot of laps.

“Sure, this is not the easiest track to start but it was good because you know the reality, and the reality is I need to work a lot on the riding style and to understand the bike.

“Today was the first time I tried the hard tyres in – I don’t know – maybe three years, and it was positive. So, it means everything is different.

“So, I need to learn and keep working.”

Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Commenting on parts of the bike that already stand out for him, Vinales highlighted the acceleration of the RS-GP – though admits he still has to understand the torque delivery of the V4-powered Aprilia as well as the braking of the bike.

“Well, actually, what I like from the bike is that the acceleration is really good,” he added.

“I mean, the progression of the engine. Just I need to understand the torque because it’s different, obviously.

“I need to understand it because it behaves one way in a round corner and another way in the pick-up area.

“So, I need to get used to it to take the maximum performance of the acceleration.

“But also what I like is that I could use the hard [front] tyre and this gave me a lot of feedback on hard braking.

“This is something I was not used to, I was used to always riding with the [soft], with a little bit of an unstable feeling.

“And using the hard gives you good stability and this is something nice. Also, I need to work on braking. I think it’s the area that has changed much more than the rest.”