Maverick Vinales says his KTM MotoGP adaptation has gotten “stuck”
Tech3 rider endured difficult first race on KTM
Maverick Vinales says he has gotten stuck in his adaptation to the KTM MotoGP bike after struggling to 14th in Saturday’s Thai Grand Prix sprint for Tech3.
Both Tech3 riders - Vinales and Enea Bastianini - had a tough winter adjusting to the RC16, but Vinales appeared to make a breakthrough on the last day of testing.
However, he could only managed 18th in qualifying and pace enough to finish 18.984s off the win on Saturday.
Asked what happened in qualifying, Vinales said: “Oh, no, nothing. I need to learn the bike more and go on the limit.
“Now I feel I’m a little bit stuck in the process, but it needs laps and trying to understand the bike more. It will take time.
“Basically, also the rhythm was not fantastic either or else I could have gone up more in the race.
“It’s something I can see that the riders who are more experienced with the bike can override, that now I’m stuck.
“So, I need to really understand and focus on the process, understand and keep learning.”
KTM managed to get two bikes into the top eight in the sprint with factory duo Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder.
Vinales believes all KTM riders are struggling in the same areas with the bike, but Acosta and Binder have been able to “naturalise” them into their riding style technique.
“All the riders are struggling on the same points and the comments are very similar,” he added.
“Just, from my point of view, the guys who have more experience are more used to it and they have naturalised these things - like to go really sideways on the brakes and it comes natural for them.
“But for me it’s a little bit too extreme and it’s so easy to make a big lateral slide.
“Maybe I just need to get used to it or we need to work to solve this problem.
“But the best thing I can do just now is to override these things and try to be strong. So, this is what I’m going to do.”
Vinales’ team-mate Bastianini could do no more than 18th in the sprint, with the Italian’s race time 30s slower than what he achieved in 2024 when he won the Saturday race for Ducati.
Quotes provided by Crash MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren
