#AragonGP MotoGP J.3 Bad choice of rear tire for Maverick Vinales?

Qualified in pole position, Maverick Viñales started less well than Jorge Lorenzo and, as he struggled to find grip with his hard rear tire, he then had to let Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez pass during the first two laps quite catastrophic.

Fortunately for him, he managed to warm up his tire and find a good rhythm from the third lap, and even started to catch up with the men in front while he was in fifth position.

Even finding himself at one point sixth after being overtaken by Dani Pedrosa, Maverick Vinales, in the last six laps of the race, was able to first recover fifth place from Andrea Dovizioso before attacking his teammate.

The one whose emblem is a wild boar was very incisive but Valentino Rossi was not going to give up his fourth position easily. Several fairly “hot” battles followed before number 25 definitively took the advantage over his elder, three laps from the checkered flag.

From then on, there was no longer enough time for Maverick Vinales to hope to catch up with Jorge Lorenzo, and the one who still has a small chance for the title had to settle for fourth place in this Aragon Grand Prix, 3,2 second behind the Mallorcan and 0,5 seconds ahead of Valentino Rossi.

A Valentino Rossi from which Maverick Vinales no longer hides the fact that he draws more and more inspiration from his settings, and whose unexpected presence in Aragon he praised…

Maverick Vinales : “The hard tire worked really poorly for us, especially during the first few laps, but after that it worked pretty well until the end. Not really in terms of grip, even if it improved from lap to lap but remained insufficient in any case. Folger used the medium tire and said it had no grip, so it was really difficult to figure out which tire we could use. For other races it had been quite clear, because we were able to do a lot of laps with the tires and so we knew which way to go, but here it was very difficult. I tried to use the same tire as my opponents. Normally, Valentino has a good feeling with the tires and perseveres with the hard option. For the following races we will have to work even harder on Friday. It is important to continue to attack, work and keep our high motivation. We have to work even harder, whatever is difficult, and we will go to Japan to improve and try to be stronger. »

Massimo Meregalli : “The choice of tire played a big role in the outcome of today's race. We only had limited time to try out the different specifications for the dry this weekend, so this made the decision quite difficult. Both drivers decided to use the hard rear tire option for durability reasons. Although they spared the life of the tire by trying to drive as smoothly as possible, in the end the tires still deteriorated. Additionally, Maverick had difficulty getting his tire up to temperature initially. It was unfortunate that by the time the tire started to work better the gap had become too big for him to catch up, but I think we all shuddered from his battle with Valentino. It's fantastic to see Vale already fighting at the front of the race, just 24 days after his accident. He did a truly amazing job today and consistently exceeded our expectations throughout the weekend. We look forward to seeing him race again in Motegi, when he has had time to better recover from his leg injury. »

Maverick Viñales, third in the world championship, is now 28 points behind Marc Márquez with potentially 100 left to win.