With just over a lap to go, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果: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 main straight for much of the race.

The Aprilia star was chasing a dream victory d🐎ouble after winning🌺 the Sprint, but his Sunday hopes fell apart when he pulled onto the main straight for the penultimate time.

As he frantically stamped on the gear lever again to try 𓃲to engage sixt♌h, Vinales lost second place to Enea Bastianini.

Worse was to follow at Turn 1 when, after running wide as he searched desperately for any gear, he was spat into a highside when second sud👍denly engaged.

“I tried to put 6th, but it didn't go in. So the bikꦿe went into neutral and I hit the RPM limiter. I put my leg out to let Bastianini understand that I hadꦬ 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 t🧔he gas [the gear] entered into 2nd and then I had a highside. [The bike] didn't lock up.

“I will not say it’s a 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 Aprilia technicians to improve in that area. I think it's imp🌌ortant if you want to fight each weekend, especially for victories.”

Given such gear issues, Vinales’ race pac🐼e was, in his words, “amazing”.

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 straigh🀅t.

“It's amazing how when I get the correct balance, I can go very fast with this bike,” said Vinales, who had struggled with the 2024 RS-🐼GP throughout winter testing and the Qatar opener.

“From lap 6, [shifting] from 5th to 6th gear, sometimes it didn't go in. So I wa♑s hitting the RPMs for sꦿo long and losing a lot on top speed and losing some tenths.

“But d♔espite that, I was able to do ‘38s and thaꦿt was amazing.

“All the race I thought I could fight for victory. T𓆉he 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. Ev🔯en with all these problems I would stay ‘38.8, ‘38.8... It was unbelievable because it could have been ‘38.6.

“I don't know what to say. Sometimes these things can happen. I prefer that it🐟 happens when you are in the front.”

Vinales seemed t🌃🥂o have a similar issue at Jerez last year.

“It felt sim🧜ilar on the bike, but I don't know if it's exactly the same [p꧒roblem],” he said.

“Anyway, I finished this weekend with aꦚ [Sprint] victory. So, happy.

“I will just say tha൲t 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 ꦕraces. And the u💖pcoming events are fantastic, especially for me.

“So we need to be happy and we need to beꦛ really proud of what we did this weeke✅nd.”

Vinales, a Grand Prix winner🍸 with Suzuki and Yamaha, will continue his pursuit of an Aprilia GP victory at COTA next month.

Team-mate Aleix Espargaro, who led the Aprilia challenge in Qatar, was𝔍 eighth in the Portuguese g𒈔rand prix.