While Aleix Espargaró was fighting for the podium and ended up in fourth, Maverick Viñales never managed to be close to the top positions throughout the MotoGP Catalan GP weekend. He finished in 12th.
The youngest of the Aprilia Spaniards mentioned after Sunday’s race in Barcelona: ‘I almost high-sided several times. My weekend is summarized in this image – high-side everywhere. But it is what it is and we need to move on. 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 make many changes, this is the maximum we have‘.
Viñales believes he could have been 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 we had difficulties this weekend, 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‘.
#12 also said that, despite the solutions tried, the Aprilia RS-GP never had the ideal performance, losing a lot of time with the difficulties of riding it: ‘I tried a different rear shock, different springs, but in the end the best is what I have been riding throughout the season. Maybe on this track, with this bike, just like in Jerez with those mixed conditions, it doesn’t work. That’s it. We need to move on to the next one, which in theory should work. There’s not much to add, to be honest. It was a weekend where I was just trying to ride the bike and that’s it. I missed the first corner two or three times, lost several seconds – at least six seconds were lost by missing the corners, and when you start from the back it’s like that‘.
