Maverick Viñales matched his Aprilia MotoGP teammate at the top of the Sepang times on Saturday ‘without pushing the limit’.
While used to topping the timesheets during preseason testing, the former Yamaha rider is confident he has much more to give with his new Aprilia machine than he could have achieved before, despite having yet to find the limit with the RS-GP and sitting second due to a 1’58.3 lap on day one in Malaysia.
With only five races under his belt for the Noale factory, Viñales is still learning the Aprilia’s fundamentals, with each new track throwing up challenges to digest alongside the development work for the only premier class manufacturer left with concessions.
“No, honestly, still I need to work because I need to adapt to the bike,” Vinales admitted despite locking out the standings narrowly behind teammate Aleix Espargaro. “Every time I arrive to a track it's new so I need to make laps.”
2022 saw Aprilia arrive with a slimline version of the RS-GP, but with comparison work undertaken, Vinales was hesitant to make any judgements. “Still I need to understand a lot the bike so I cannot judge too much if I fit perfectly in the bike because still I need to learn.
“This half day we spent trying a few things which I think during the real test is difficult to test because you have to push, you have to make the lap time,” he continued. “We spent half of the day just to try different things, however, I think it's good. If both the riders are fast is always good, so I'm happy also that Aleix is fast and we both can compare. This is nice.
“Every day I'm learning a little bit more. Still I don't know the limit of the bike and I think still is a little bit far away from what I'm pushing right now. The most difficult for me is to understand where I can push to make the lap time. Before I was pushing on a different way but if I tried to push on the same way I don't do the lap time on the Aprilia. I need to change a bit the mind, is not easy but we are arriving.
“The important point and what I feel good is that we are riding fast without pushing at the maximum so this is nice. I feel like I can be much stronger with this bike than with the previous one so I'm happy.”
