Maverick Vinales victim of ride height device issue in Motegi MotoGP sprint
Aprilia rider unable to capitalise on front row in Japan sprint
Maverick Vinales says his Japanese Grand Prix sprint race was compromised by his Aprilia MotoGP bike’s front ride height device not disengaging at the start.
The Aprilia rider has been strong all weekend so far at Motegi and carried that form into qualifying, where he put his RS-GP third on the grid.
But he couldn’t disengage his front start device into Turn 1 and dropped down the order from third to 10th in the opening corners as he got beaten up by the riders around him.
This conditioned his race, with Vinales only able to get back into the final points paying position in ninth at the chequered flag.
“At the start of the race, I didn’t disengage the front device and I lost several positions,” he said.
“Sunday will be a new race, but I am still optimistic. In qualifying, I managed to work some magic, so I hope to be able to do the same in the long race too.”
Team-mate Aleix Espargaro came from 15th on the grid and got to the fringes of the top 10 having felt faster on a bike set-up similar to Vinales’.
But being mired in the pack led to Espargaro’s front tyre pressure ballooning and caused him to crash out of the race on lap 10 of 12.
“I improved a bit in the sprint race,” he said.
“I tried a different set-up, very similar to Maverick’s. It worked well and I felt comfortable.
“In fact, I was coming back, but then the temperature and the front tyre pressure raised quite a bit.
“At that point, it was extremely hard to ride the bike, and the front end locked up, making me crash on Turn 1.”
Outgoing Aprilia technical director Romano Albesiano assessed: “Maverick’s third place in qualifying was a result that gave us confidence.
“It’s a shame about the start and the opening scrum, because Maverick had the potential to bring home a good result in the sprint race.
“Aleix made a leap forward in terms of performance in the sprint race, managing to recover several positions to get close to the group where Maverick was too.
“It’s a shame about the crash just two laps from the end. In the long race, we’ll have a new chance to demonstrate our potential.”
