After a strong start to the season, including a win, Maverick Viñales is going through a rough patch. Yesterday, he finished only eighth in the Sprint race at the Catalunya GP, where his teammate Aleix Espargaró took the victory. Aprilia’s CEO, Massimo Rivola, doesn’t hide his disappointment with the result.
The Italian mentioned that he expected and expects more from the rider who won the Americas GP: ‘To be honest, it has been a bit of a disappointing weekend so far, but even starting from his position [14th], Marc [Márquez] showed that if there is pace, it is possible to fight for the podium. I did not expect to have this kind of situation with him, because he has always been very fast in all races, except the first one. The bike has shown that the performance is there, so I hope he recovers and finally has a strong start and fights. I want to see him fighting‘.
On the other hand, Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia) was fighting for points-scoring positions until he crashed while in seventh place – starting from 15th. Rivola showed support for the Portuguese rider, not blaming him:
– Miguel is getting there. He was fast on Friday. He had another very strong start, he was fast, he crashed, but we know something was wrong. So, I don’t want to blame him. He missed out on Q1 by not much, it’s four tenths to the pole position and he starts from far back, but this is MotoGP today. I think he just lacked those last tenths, but he is there, he is coming.
