Maverick Viñales won the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas with a strong performance in Austin throughout the weekend. The rider is going through a good moment, showing himself very confident and calm.
In a press conference, the Spaniard spoke about the source of this state of mind he is now able to display: ‘Well, that confidence and belief come from last year. It’s obvious that it took a whole year with my new chief mechanic to really understand the bike and what it needed. But it was worth it, because since Qatar I have always been fighting for the top positions and that’s what we need to achieve’.
That said, Viñales emphasized that it is always necessary to seek to have the bike in the ideal balance to have the ideal sensations: ‘It’s obvious that when we switched to the new bike it wasn’t easy, but in Portimão we understood well what we needed to do and now I feel really good with the bike. The thing is that when I can ride with my own riding style and be effective, I am very calm and confident. So, we always need to see the balance, trying to always have the bike in this kind of balance to be able to attack and do the best’.
In the view of #12, stability is one of the major strengths of the current Aprilia RS-GP: ‘What I can see, especially compared to other bikes, maybe stability is one of the key points of the bike. The bike is very stable. Obviously, we still need to improve on the 180-degree turns when we have to stop the bike, but there aren’t many tracks with 180-degree turns. So, that’s good. Obviously, in the flowing part of the track, like Sector 1 or the three right turns, that’s where I was making a difference throughout the race. So, I think our bike is strong there, but it can still improve in other areas‘.
