Maverick Vinales: “Unbelievable” race despite gearbox glitch, “I was praying it would go in, then…”
Maverick Vinales was battling fo༺r victory in the Portimao MotoGP despite suffering a gear selection issue for 𒈔most of the grand prix, which eventually spat him off on the final lap.
With just over a lap to go, 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Maverick Vinales was confident he could still fight Jorge Martin for victory in Sunday’s Portimao MotoGP - despite struggling to engage sixth gear on the m𒁏ain strai🥃ght for much of the race.
The Aprilia star was chasing a dream victory ꦆdouble after winning the Sp🎀rint, but his Sunday hopes fell apart when he pulled onto the main straight for the penultimate time.
As he frantically stam🐈ped on the gear lever again to try to engage sixth, Vinales lost second place to Enea Bastiani𒁏ni.
Worse was to𝓰 follow at Turn 1 when, after running wide as he searched desperately for any gear, he was spat into a highside when second suddenly engaꦓged.
“I tried to put 6th, but it didn't go in. So the bike ꦓwent into neutral and I hit the RPM limiter. I put my leg out to let Bastianini understand that I had a problem.
“I kept trying to put 6th but it didn't go in. So I went back to 2nd [at Turn 1] and when I touched the gas [the gear] entered into 2nd and then💝 I had a highside. [The bike] didn't lock up𓄧.
“I will not say it’s aꦛ disappointment, but I will say that this can maybe be a call of attention to ꧅improve a little bit more the reliability.
“I really encourage all the A💝prilia technicians to improve﷽ in that area. I think it's important if you want to fight each weekend, especially for victories.”
Given such gear issues, Vinales’ race pace was, in his words, “amazi𒁃ng”.
The Spaniard set the second fastest lap of the race, behind only Enea Bastianini, on lap 20 of 24 even though his top speed varied from 334.3 to 345.0km/h♒ on the main straight.
“It's amazing how when I get the correct balance, I can go very fast witಌh this bike,” said Vinales, who had struggled with the 2024 RS-GP throughout winter testing and the Qatar opener.
“From lap 6, [shifting] fr꧟om 5th to 6th gear, sometimes i⛦t didn't go in. So I was hitting the RPMs for so long and losing a lot on top speed and losing some tenths.
“But despite that, I was♊ able to🌃 do ‘38s and that was amazing.
“All the r🤡ace I thought I could fight for victory. The problem is that every time the gearbox got worse and worse.
“I was just praying 🤪it would go [into gear during the race] because I pressed like five times and then it would go in.
“So every time I was losing 0.2s on the main straight and then I would recover all the gap again. Even with all these problems I would stay ‘38.8, ‘38.8... It was unbelievable because it could have been ‘38.6꧙.
“I don't know what to say. Sometimes these things can happen. I prefer that it happens when you are ༺in the ✤front.”
V𝔍inales seemed to have a similar issue at Jerez last year.
“It felt similar on the bike, but I don't know if it's exactly the same [problem],” 💟he said.
“Anyway,🔯 I finished th🔯is weekend with a [Sprint] victory. So, happy.
“I will💦 just say that I'm really motivated and I see myself winning another race again.
“I want to really say to Aprilia that this must be an encouragement for the next races. And the upcoming events are fantas🤡tic, especially for me.
“So we need to be happy and we need to be reꦚally proud of what we did this weekend.”
Vinales, a Grand Prix winner with Suzuki and Yamah൩a, will continue his pursuit of an April🐠ia GP victory at COTA next month.
Team-mate Aleix Espargaro, who led the Ap꧙rilia challenge in Qatar, was eighth in the Portuguese grand prix.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and h𝓰as seen Valentino Rossi come and go.꧅ He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
