Maverick Vinales: ‘In a bad weekend, these points were really important’

Maverick Vinales takes the fight to Ducati at Le Mans but fifth place in the grand 🌱prix means 🔯he needs another step from the RS-GP.

Maverick Vinales, Marc Marquez, 2024 French MotoGP
Maverick Vinales, Marc Marquez, 2024 French MotoGP

Aprilia’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Maverick Vinales was the top non-Ducati rider in qualifying for the both French MotoGP and then both races💟.

But the COTA winner was disappointed to drop from third place in the Sprint to♉ fifth in the grand prix, despite pegging the victory deficit at four-seconds in both the half and full-length contests.

The grand prix didn't start well when a scare at turn one saw Vinales 🦄straight ꦚline the chicane and slip to fifth.

“I braked, to [dis]engage all the devices, but then the bike shaked so much and I could not stay on the track,” Vinales explained. “When I re-entered, maybe I gave up too much because I went from 2nd to 5th. But I made a mistakeও, so it was OK. After that, I tried to 🅘keep the rhythm.”

🔯After Pedro Acosta passed him, then fell, Vinales overtook tꩵeam-mate Aleix Espargaro for fourth.

Although Vinales couldn’t keep Marc Marquez at bay in the middle stages, Fabio di Giannantonio’s subsequent long lap put t💫he RS-GP rider back into fourth. But a recovering Enea Bastianini took that place from him on the penultimate lap.

“We battled with Marc, with di Giannantonio and I felt I could go forward to the front guys. Looked like we were closing the gap, but from lap 17 [of 27] I started to struggle a lo൲t with the rear tyre and was more conservative,” said Vinales.

I saw I had a lot of room🦩 behind, so I ⛎tried not to make any mistakes. So in a bad weekend, these points were really important.”

Vinales was the only non-Ducati rider in the top seven and, although fifth in the world championship standings, is only ten points from second place 📖Francesco Bagnaia.

But what does he need to challenge the ꧙front-running Ducatis again?

“Obviously,𒁃 we go to Montmelo and the expectation will be very high, but we need to [think] conservative because maybe the Ducati has improved a lot and they might also be strong in this track,” Vinales said.

“But for the rest of the tracks, we need to check how to make this n🐼ext step.

“Some tracks wil♈l be better or not. I thought this weekend should be really good but the guys were telling me maybe it's not the best for the bike and at the end they we๊re right.

“ಌBut I tried to ride the best possible and I'm happy that at least [afte🙈r the top four Ducatis] I was the first one.”

Espargaro finish🌳ed ninth on Sunday after losing time in tangles with Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli.

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