While Aleix Espargaró was in the fight for the podium and finished fourth, Maverick Viñales never managed to be close to the top positions throughout the MotoGP Catalan GP weekend. He finished in 12th place.
The youngest of the Aprilia Spaniards mentioned after Sunday’s race in Barcelona: ‘I almost high-sided several times. My weekend is summed up in this image – high-siding everywhere. But it is what it is and we need to move forward. We probably needed more time to fix the bike, we tried several things. In the end, the best bike was the standard one, which means we don’t have to change much, in the end this is the maximum we have‘.
Viñales believes he could have stayed in the top six with a better starting position, but admitted the difficulties that existed: ‘It was a weekend maybe to make a top five or top six if we started from the front. But of course, we want to fight at the front. It seems that this weekend we had difficulties, but we need to move on, close this chapter of Montmeló and continue. The 2024 bike is different, so probably it will work in Mugello and we need to be fresh with a lot of motivation‘.
El #12 también dijo que, a pesar de las soluciones probadas, la Aprilia RS-GP nunca tuvo un rendimiento ideal, perdiendo mucho tiempo con las dificultades de pilotaje que tuvo: ‘Probé un amortiguador trasero diferente, diferentes muelles, pero al final lo mejor es lo que he estado pilotando durante toda la temporada. Tal vez en esta pista, con esta moto, al igual que en Jerez con esas condiciones mixtas, no funciona. Eso es. Necesitamos pasar a la siguiente, en la que en teoría debería funcionar. No hay mucho más que añadir, para ser honesto. Fue un fin de semana en el que simplemente estuve intentando pilotar la moto y ya está. Fallé dos o tres veces en la curva uno, perdí varios segundos – perdí al menos seis segundos al fallar en las curvas, y cuando partes de atrás es así’.
