Ecstar Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales had a very different race at Misano than MotoGP Silverstone just a week ago, having to completely change the way the rode to make the GSX-RR go forwards, which meant he was on the absolute edge from lights out to chequered flag.
In the early laps, Vinales was unable to use the corner speed that has carried him to victory at Silverstone so had to turn the bike with the rear until the fuel load went down, and then he could begin to make time on ndrea Dovizioso and look at catching Marc Marquez.
“I was feeling really good. Just the grip was down and it was difficult to make corner speed. Then I was using a lot of gas. It was totally different to Silverstone. There I was using all the time corner speed. Here I was using the gas,” said Vinales, speaking at the track.
“With this bike, when you’re using the gas, you don’t go fast. The first laps were difficult with the full tank but lap-by-lap it was coming better. I could do more corner speed because of the fuel going down.
“Anyway, I was going at 200 per cent all the race. I was all the time on the limit with the red paint. We did some improvements this weekend that we can take to Aragon, where it’s going to be hot.
“We need to analyse if the tyre was perfect. That tyre had a little bit less performance so this we need to check. About the front I felt really good, really confident. Seriously, I was doing all the lap time with the front. The rear was like sliding a lot. I had an incredible feeling with the front and had no problems there.
“If I didn’t have this change of position I’d have finished maybe eleven seconds behind Dani, who today was riding incredible. For me it was a good result. For sure I want more. I want to be there at the front, winning. But to be realistic it was the best result we could have achieved today.”