Vinales: We'll be much closer in Misano, Aleix 'riding fantastic'

Although avoiding any precise targets, Maverick Vinales is confident he will be 'much closer' to the front during his second MotoGP weekend as an Aprilia rider, at Misano.

Vinales not only has a full race weekend under his belt from Aragon, where he finished 18th and +27s on his RS-GP race debut, but also the benefit of a prior two-day test at Misano.

"I think for sure in Misano we will be much closer because I have some experience with the bike," Vinales said on Thursday. "I had time to think, analyse and work especially from one weekend to the other. So every weekend I think [we will be] going up and this is the important thing.

"But it looks like the weekend will be very funny, rain, sun, rain, sun! We will see. We have to be ready and the most important is that we need to try different things.

"I'm curious to continue the learning process and I'm ready to do much more things than in Aragon, because I think in Aragon we were in a conservative way, trying to adapt myself.

"But here in Misano where I've made laps before, I understand the track [with this bike] so we can try a little bit more and go into different areas.

"It makes no sense to [say] now that we need to arrive at this position. Right now we need to learn, to be calm and try different things. And from ten things maybe one will work, this is the job! So we need to keep working.

"In Aragon we lost everything on braking and it's clear I need to trust the bike, trust the front. We need laps. It doesn't come in just ten laps. This is the process."

While Vinales is very much in the early learning stage with the RS-GP, after his mid-season split from Yamaha, experienced team-mate Aleix Espargaro is enjoying the best form of his career with 3-4 results in the past two rounds.

"Absolutely! He is riding fantastic," Vinales said. "You can see and I can see, he has a lot of confidence with the bike. He's in a sweet moment. When you are in a sweet moment it is like this and he is riding fantastic the bike. So he has all the credit, it's clear."