Third today in the Sprint race, Maverick Viñales revealed he had a problem with the rear tire that slowed him down a bit, and if he can solve the issue, he can fight for the win, that’s his wish.
Viñales had a high temperature issue today that affected the performance of the Aprilia RS-GP: ‘We weren’t fast enough, like in practice, but I know why. I had a high temperature on the rear tire and basically, I was sliding too much in the corners, sideways, and never stopped. We have to check the data but, fortunately, we put ourselves in a good position and controlled the gap to Enea [Bastianini], who was very fast. I am very happy and quite optimistic for tomorrow and, if we can correct the tire temperature, we will definitely have a fantastic race. We have to look ahead and believe that we can do it’.
There is more to get from his machine, he believes, but it is crucial to understand what went wrong, as the potential is greater than what he showed: ‘The temperature was so high on the rear and I don’t know why. From the first lap, so we have to understand and work with Michelin to understand, with our technician and I think we can do it. It definitely wasn’t our potential, we were a bit below it and that’s good news, because I think with our potential we can go with Marc [Márquez] and fight with Jorge [Martín]. We have to keep going and have confidence in ourselves and try to do our best’.
With the possibility of rain tomorrow, #12 believes that it can still go well… or on the contrary: ‘If it rains, it will be a big challenge for us. We have to keep that in mind, this possibility: if it rains we can be fantastic or very bad, there is no middle ground. If it doesn’t rain and the temperature is not so high, maybe it can be good for us in the rear temperature, but at the same time we have to analyze the situation, and we will work in the garage, and understand what the main problem was’.
The desire is to fight at the front, of course: ‘The bike is good, we have been doing well all weekend and we are ready to fight, I want to fight at the front’.
