Vinales: “Do sighting lap, then cancel” | “Curious to go deep in the wet data”

Sunday’s schedule had been in doubt for days due to the forecast storm, prompting the main grand prix race to swap places with the Sprint and take place on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday duly dawned wet and windy and, while the warm-ups and Moto3 grand prix were completed, the increasing wind caused the Moto2 race to be halted on lap 9 after Celestino Vietti was blown off track at the end of the 280km/h straight.

A Moto2 restart was abandoned and, with conditions worsening and wind levels exceeding those of the cancelled 2019 MotoGP qualifying session, the Sprint race was cancelled after a meeting with the teams.

“From my point of view, to at least do the sighting lap, to see how the track was, then cancel the race was necessary,” said Vinales.

“We had some information from Moto2 riders, also they said it was impossible. So I don't know. It's not in our hands.”

The Aprilia rider, fastest in the wet warm-up, conceded: “At the end, I think safety has to be the main concern. It's always so difficult, these situations, for Race Direction.

“I imagine after putting the red flag in Moto2, to let us go in the same conditions was no meaning.”

Reflecting on his warm-up form, Vinales expressed his surprise that the RS-GP's rear traction problems in the dry, disappeared in the wet.

“I was looking good. The other Aprilias not that much, but I was honestly with a really good feeling,” said the Spaniard, who qualified ninth in the dry and finished eleventh in the Saturday grand prix.

“It's something we must understand because in the wet, I found the traction I don't have in the dry.

“Honestly, I'm curious to really go into deep in the wet data, because we have something we are missing on the dry.”