Maverick Vinales “riding like the top guys” after qualifying “highsides”

Maverick Vinales finished Saturday’s Aragon MotoGP Sprint 7.2s behind race winner Marc Marquez, in seventh.

But the Tech3 KTM rider lost 5.6s of that in the opening four laps, when a frustrating eighth in qualifying was compounded by losing further ground on the opening lap.

Once in clear air, Vinales set the third fastest lap - slower than only race leaders Marc and Alex Marquez - and finished 2.5s from Fermin Aldeguer and the final place on the MotoGP podium.

“I don't know why, but today in qualifying we found two tyres that didn't work great,” Vinales said.

“We have the data, and everything is really clear. Compared with yesterday, the difference is 0.1 here, 0.1 there, which would have put me P4 on the grid.

“Already in the out lap, I nearly highsided twice,” he added. “I thought, 'maybe I need to warm up the tyre'. But first lap, second lap, highside again. 

"I had faith that the second tyre was on a high potential, and actually, on the right side it was amazing.

“But again, when I arrived at turn 10, highside. Turn 17, highside. That was the three tenths that would put me on the second row.

“Then in the race, I had a good rhythm, because lap 9 today was a '47.1. 

"When I had a little bit of free space, I was riding like the top guys. I caught up to Diggia and the group in front. So the bike is working well. 

"It’s also very positive for tomorrow because I'm feeling good with the medium rear tyre. 

"The bike is working well, so we will not change anything else for Sunday."

Team manager Nicolas Goyon said: "Maverick is back to the level he was before Silverstone, but most importantly, he is happy with the bike's set-up and the bike's behaviour, so we can arrive on Sunday confident that he can continue the weekend in the right direction."

Pedro Acosta was the top KTM rider in fifth place, just 1.1s ahead of Vinales whose team-mate Enea Bastianini finished just 17th.

"Another difficult day for us. We tried to be more at the front, we pushed in qualifying but nothing worked well for us," said Bastianini, who is still struggling to turn the RC16 when he releases the front brake on corner entry.