Maverick Vinales says the Austrian MotoGP highlighted braking issues Aprilia must ♋solve, after struggling to a distant seventh and an "unacceptable" deficit to its rivals.

The Red Bull꧟ Ring is one of Aprilia’s weakest circuits as its stop-and-go layout works against th🌊e RS-GP’s strengths in high-speed corners.

As has been the case recen🌠tly, Aprilia showed strong form in the sprint, with Aleix Espargaro coming third after Marc Marquez crashed out of second late on.

But in the grand prix, Vinales was 24.322s b🍌ehind race winner Francesco Bagnaia in seventh, with Espa💛rgaro losing eighth late on to Franco Morbidelli.

After so🧜unding the alarm bells at the British GP, particularly over tyre degradation, Vinales has identified braking as a key area for Aprilia to work on.

“We are understanding what we need,” he said.

“Basically, it’s on brak𒅌es. I think what we understand and what I feel i🥂s that we are not loading the front tyre well.

“So, we are no𝐆t taking out the maximum performance of the front tyre.

“Somehow it gives you a bad feeling, especially through the race when everything gets hotter and th🌳e pressure goes up. So, it will be important in Aragon to work on that.”

He added: “It was a defensive race.๊ I tried to squeeze out as much as possible. On this circuit, in particular, I struggle with braking.

“It was hard to stop the bike. To be honest, I think 🌳it is a good result and I earned important points anyway.

“Th🅘ere are some areas where th🐻e bike was very strong and we know that there are things we need to improve, like braking.”

Apr꧟ilia CEO Massimo Rivola says the team “collected some🔯 important data to analyse” in Austria, but slammed the gap to its rivals.

“We confirmed once again that we are competitive i🗹n qualifying and in the sprint race,” he said.

“Unfortun♉ately, yet again in the long race, when the distance increases, tyre degradation arrives and we lose competiti🌱veness.

“We knew that this was not one of the most favour𒊎able tracks for our bike, but we also encountered some exce🦂ssive temperature issues.

“We certainly collected some important data to analyse in order to improve. All we can do is keep working, because the gap 🤪behind the ♐others in the race is unacceptable.”