Breaking news
MotoGP Catalan GP
Vinales admits he lost his way on set-up for Catalan GP
Maverick Vinales admits he lost his way in setting up his Yamaha for the Catalan Grand Prix weekend, which contributed to his lowly ninth-place finish in Sunday’s MotoGP race.
Lewis Duncan
Edited: Sep 28, 2020, 9:32 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Yamaha rider had strong race pace throughout practice and was expected to challenge for victory on Sunday, but got swamped on the run to Turn 1 due to the M1’s lack of acceleration.
As a result, Vinales was 16th at the end of the first lap and ended up just “cruising” for the first 16 laps as he could not overtake the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro or LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow.
He eventually got past both with a “crazy move” and recovered to ninth, but feels he tried too hard to improve edge grip across practice which meant he “didn’t know what to choose” in terms of set-up for the race.
Having come from a dominant Emilia Romagna GP victory last weekend, Vinales admits his Catalan race was a disaster in comparison.
“Nothing went to plan,” said Vinales. “We tried to take the maximum points, but anyway it’s remaining like always; [for] four, five years we have no power. I lost a lot of places at the start. Not on the initial part, but in the second part of the start.
“We started the race knowing that, but for me what’s very frustrating is I pass 16 laps fighting behind Aleix and Cal, and I could not pass – impossible. [The] only time I passed was at corner five, braking on the outside. Crazy move, which I risked crashing a lot. When I got alone, I had really good lap times. When you get stuck behind someone, you cannot pass [on the Yamaha], this is the main problem.
“All weekend I was struggling with the grip and we tried many things, maybe too much, and for sure we lost the way this weekend. We arrived to the warm-up with a very different set-up and we didn’t know what to choose. So, when you don’t do the correct job, this is the result you have.”
Read Also:
- Barcelona MotoGP: Quartararo wins as Rossi, Dovizioso crash
- Quartararo: Barcelona win not motivated by Marquez comments
- Zarco feels "sad" about taking Dovizioso down
Vinales admits he was also struggling all weekend with front locking, which also meant he sacrificed performance in other areas chasing a fix for this. However, he believes had he started on the front row he could have a “completely different result” as he wasn’t experiencing the same dramatic rear tyre drop-off the leaders did.
“The problem is this track,” he added. “If you start in front, today would have been a completely different result, because the second part of the race I was very strong with the tyres. I didn’t have that kind of [wear] issue with the tyres, but when you don’t start good with this bike you cannot defend yourself.
“So, the only thing you can do is let laps and laps pass, and until the opponents lose the grip you can’t overtake. And I just cruised for 16 laps behind Aleix and Cal, they were defending really good because I wasn’t able to pass.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rossi admits MotoGP title chances "closed" after Catalan crash
Next article Mir: "Too early" to be considered MotoGP title favourite
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Lewis Duncan
MotoGP 2025: Full rider line-up revealed
MotoGP
MotoGP Sep 19, 2024
MotoGP 2025: Full rider line-up revealed
A year on from Marquez’s Germany MotoGP meltdown, has Honda improved?
MotoGP
MotoGP
German GP
Jul 5, 2024
A year on from Marquez’s Germany MotoGP meltdown, has Honda improved?
What’s behind MotoGP’s right-hander chaos in Germany practice?
MotoGP
MotoGP
German GP
Jul 5, 2024
What’s behind MotoGP’s right-hander chaos in Germany practice?
More from
Maverick Viñales
Maverick Vinales to undergo extensive medical checks: “If I have something broken, I'll stop”
MotoGP
MotoGP
Qatar GP
4 d
Maverick Vinales to undergo extensive medical checks: “If I have something broken, I'll stop”
Maverick Vinales: “If I stay at home, I don’t get paid”
MotoGP
MotoGP
Australian GP
22 d
Maverick Vinales: “If I stay at home, I don’t get paid”
Maverick Vinales “thinking every night” about future: “I haven’t given up yet”
MotoGP
MotoGP
Japanese GP
1 mo
Maverick Vinales “thinking every night” about future: “I haven’t given up yet”
Latest news
Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
1 h
Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac
You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller
MotoGP
Qatar GP
You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller
Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
5 h
Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe