Maverick Viñales secured a hard-fought eighth place in today‘s emotional and physically demanding ItalianGP at Mugello despite struggling with front tyre feeling.

Despite the use of Yamaha’s new hole-shot device, Viñales had a difficult start from 13th on the grid, finding himself down in 16th after the opening lap. Recovering quickly, the Spaniard picked up two positions in the following revolutions before being promoted to 12th after another two riders crashed out.

With 15 laps to go, he overtook Pol Espargaró, setting red and personal best sectors as he advanced on Danilo Petrucci before overcoming Michele Pirro four laps later.

Having used up most of his medium tyres, the four-second gap to Takaaki Nakagami ahead seemed like too big an ask, however, the LCR crashed out at turn 14. Alex Rins doing likewise at the final corner left the number-12 in eighth position and Viñales brought his M1 home for eight championship points - 17.239s from his teammate in first - leaving him sixth in the overall standings.

“Well, actually I didn’t have enough feeling with the front” Viñales said after the Mugello race.

“I struggled a lot. Somehow, I was so good during FP1, but at that time I was riding with the soft front tyres. So we need to check what makes such a big difference in the front feeling between compounds for us. We need to find out why I struggled with the medium tyre this entire weekend. I couldn’t turn and couldn’t make a big improvement in my lap times. Basically, during this race I struggled a lot. We have data to analyse, we have one guy in our team that is winning, so we need to analyse and keep working.”

There were positives to take from the weekend, however, with the Spaniard praising Yamaha’s new hole-shot device and hinting at more development to come.

“Honestly, I’m happy. From zero to 150 is much faster, much faster, but still we could use much more power, especially in second gear. So, in a few races it will be ready and will be fantastic. I’m just very happy with Yamaha, they make it very fast, we see Fabio just lose one position, it’s good, we are very happy for that. It was very positive.”

The last lap saw controversy as the podium places were deleted then reinstated due to marginal track limit infringements by both Joan Mir and Miguel Oliveira, with Joe Roberts also losing his Moto2 podium to the same sanction. Viñales believes that the rules, and the championship, need to offer some flexibility when it comes to the marginal violations, where no advantage is gained.

“Honestly on the track limits, we need to be a little bit more flexible” he explained.

“For example, in Moto2 Joe Roberts, didn’t gain anything there, nothing, he gained zero. Finally the limit is for safety, but we need to understand that sometimes, it’s not that he went completely out, he just went a little bit, he touch a little bit the green. It’s true that the rule is the rule, but sometimes we need to be a little bit more flexible because for me, Joe Roberts, Miguel also, did nothing wrong.

“For example, if where he touch the green, there was grass, happen nothing because he’s completely straight. Maybe exiting the corner, for example like I go out at turn nine, okay, is normal that I have track warning but in five? No, is tough. It happened to me in Portimao and destroyed my result and actually we didn’t even know. Today, Joe Roberts should be on the podium, because he did nothing wrong.”

Reflecting on the heartbreaking aspect of the weekend, and the loss of Jason Dupasquier, Viñales concluded.

“Already, when we went out in FP4 it was difficult. I mean, you never believe it can happen in the track. We are riding in the safest tracks. It’s true that the crash was a very unlucky crash and finally, we lost Jason. My thoughts are with the family, and a big hug to all his closest friends. Also the team, because the teams are our second family. It’s just pretty tough to understand how this can be possible. Very difficult, very tough.”