RiderTua.com – Sunday’s main race ended in great disappointment for Maverick Vinales and Aprilia. A technical failure cost the Spaniard the podium that would have been in his hands in the day’s race in Portimao. After a victory in a sprint race, it would be very positive to finish in first place. He held on for a long time in second place behind Jorge Martin, saving the strength to attack at the last minute.. then at the end of the lap an unexpected problem occurred.
At the end of the race, Massimo Rivola spoke to Sky Sport media to comment on what happened. “It looks like the gearbox is damaged. This can be seen from the data and we are now taking the gearbox apart to check, but we are quite sure that this is what happened. The interesting thing and the sad thing is that he already had problems a few laps before. Maverick didn’t have a good race, what’s more. On paper he could have won. Two races in a row where we had a package to win with different riders and then we didn’t get nothing. Here we need to examine ourselves further, because it is unacceptable to see a driver who rides well and then not maximize his performance. Seeing the checkered flag is the first rule of racing.”
Aprilia Apologizes to Maverick Vinales
The CEO of Aprilia Racing is very sorry for the failure of Vinales’ race, despite the fact that the rider and the RS-GP had a high level of competitiveness that weekend. “A big disappointment. We are very confident in the performance of the bike and Maverick, who raced better today than yesterday . We are really good and this gives us hope for the future. The team has understood the key to getting him going fast, we have a lot of races ahead and he will have the opportunity to show what he is capable of.”
Rivola also assured everyone about the condition of the former Suzuki and Yamaha rider who had also fallen. “We saw that he only had scratches and bumps, physically he was fine. After efforts in the test and in the first race, here we found how to improve it and we hope to find it again in the future.”
Maverick Vinales himself also spoke with Sky Sport media and told what happened. “From the first lap I couldn’t get into sixth gear, then it got worse and finally broke. We know we need to improve the reliability of the engine, this is important. But we had a great weekend great, even with those problems, I have good speed. Without it I would be stronger. I can’t do anything, they at Noale (the manufacturer) have to intervene.”
Of course the rider hopes that Aprilia will improve in the future, but at the same time he is happy to finally be strong… “If we have the right balance, we can produce a performance like this. I can fight with Jorge Martin. However, I also want to motivate everyone at Aprilia, we have to move forward with our heads held high.”
