Maverick Vinales: “Plenty of room” in Pecco practice start "scare"
“When I saw the crash, I said ‘maybe I touched him’. But then I saw the replay”
Maverick Vinales insisted he did nothing unusual in the practice start incident that saw title contender Francesco Bagnaia crash after the chequered flag on Friday morning at the Barcelona MotoGP finale.
Vinales put an outside pass on a slow-moving Bagnaia in the Turn 1 braking zone.
Although there was no contact, Bagnaia was startled by the move, grabbed his front brake and fell.
“My mistake was to slow down that much, but honestly when you are arriving that fast you go to the inside,” Bagnaia said.
“So I started to hear him, and I thought ‘Okay, he will go to the inside’.
“But as soon as I saw him arriving with enormous speed on the outside, on the kerb, with the bike moving, I got scared, so I lost the front like this.”
Vinales highlighted that the purpose of a practice start is not only to launch off the line but to understand the correct braking point for Turn 1.
“For me, it's not about who is at fault,” said the Aprilia rider. “In the end, a practice start is to practice the start, so you arrive at the first corner trying to disengage [the holeshot devices as in a real start] so you brake late.
“I saw Pecco was in the middle, very slow. I don't know why. And I tried to avoid him. I went to the outside, but I gave like two bikes [space]. I didn't even pass close-close.
“When I saw the crash, I said ‘maybe I touched him’, I don't know.
“But then I saw the replay and there was plenty of room. I think he got maybe scared or something. He grabbed the front brake and locked the front tyre.”
Bagnaia, seeking to overturn a big 24-point title advantage for Jorge Martin this weekend, later finished on top of the Friday afternoon timesheets with Vinales in sixth.
“We are through to Q2, so that's a good thing,” said Vinales. “Unfortunately, on the last time attack, I had two yellow flags, so I could not make the lap.
“But from my point of view, we are more competitive here than in May."
But can Vinales, the only rider to defeat the Ducatis in a grand prix this season courtesy of his COTA victory, take them on in this weekend's final RS-GP appearance?
“I wish I could, but I don't know. It’s like always, if I'm looking at the lap times today, I will tell you I can fight with them. But let's see tomorrow,” he said. “I don't know the improvement they're going to make.”
Team-mate Aleix Espargaro was third fastest.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
