Maverick Viñales finished Sunday’s race at Losail in tenth position and admitted difficulties, and “asked” for time for the team to focus on the new Aprilia RS-GP and… to “build” it.
The factory Aprilia rider explained that he has to be at a higher level, and that this year he has a practically new bike and is starting from scratch: ‘I think we have to be critical of ourselves, because this isn’t really the level we should be at. Last year, we left a bike that took pole position and could perfectly fight for wins, and this year we’ve put it back together from scratch. We have to build, there’s no other way’.
The Spaniard also spoke about his compatriot and team-mate, and on that basis reaffirmed the need to get to work: ‘I saw that Aleix [Espargaró] also had a lot of problems during the race and we have to reconsider and build. I think we’re starting from scratch with this new bike, as I said at Sepang, and we have to know it, we have to understand it’.
He concluded: ‘In the first race, we certainly have good data to understand and continue to grow. Right now, we’re starting with a practically new bike’.