Maverick Vinales has reflected on a🧸 strange quirk of his tenure with Aprilia in MotoGP, noting that the “second part of the season was very difficult” always for the RS-GP.

The Spaniard joined A🎃prilia in the latter stages of ♓the 2021 season following his acrimonious split with Yamaha, and spent three full campaigns with the Italian brand to the end of 2024.

Vinales achieved his first and oꦍnly grand prix win on the RS-GP in 2024 at the Americas GP, having also shown strong in the previous round in Portugal.

However, he later admitted that neither he no▨r Aprilia understands quite why they we🧔re so fast at that point of the championship.

Vinales noted that America wasn’t the only tiꩵme he felt his best on the Aprilia, but commented that in his years there the RS-GP’s form always slumped in the second hal😼f of a year.

“I had a few races wheꦍre I had a great🔴 feeling,” he said last month in Barcelona.

“Le Mans ’23, just I crash♛ed. But I think that race could be another win, for sure. And some others where the feeling was really good.

“The bike show🅷ed great potential in some parts of the championship, but something I feel that was repetitive in my years in Aprilia was the second part of the season was very difficult for all the Aprilias.

“So, difficult to understand because the tracks are normally good for us. But when you arrive into the second part of the championship, it was alwa🐬ys difficult.”

In the first 10 rounds 𓆏of the 2024, the factory Aprilia squad managed three sprint wins, a grand prix victory and c♔racked the top five on Sundays four times.

In the laಞst 10 rounds, it ma🅺naged just two sprint podiums and one top five in a grand prix as it slid to third in the constructors' standings behind KTM - whom Vinales joins in 2025 with the Tech3 team.

Vinales theorises the 𝓡reason for this was that Aprilia began each season at the bike’s highest level, while its rivals came on better l💦ater in the year.

“I don’t know, because we⛄ tried everything,” he said wꩵhen asked what he thought caused this trend.

“We cha𒈔nged swingarms🍌, chassis, everything to try to understand what was going on.

“But maybe the idea that I have is that we started at the maximum and the others were a little bit struggling🧸 with the new bike and then they made the next step.”