It's a Maverick Viñales at least as disappointed as his teammate Valentino Rossi who took stock of his Austrian Grand Prix. And for good reason. He finished sixth, just ahead of his elder at Yamaha and behind Johann Zarco's satellite M1. At the same time, the Spaniard has done his math: in the last five races, he has only been on the podium once. And here he is no longer second but third in the championship, 24 lengths behind Marc Márquez…
At Yamaha, when things go wrong, we find the same semantics on the waltz of the chassis. It is therefore clear that, new fairing or not, work on electronics or not, the subject is sensitive and hot. Only sixth while aiming for victory, Casa Particular in Viñales gave vent to his frustration: “ I really expected to fight at the front, but our rear tire decided otherwise. He slipped a lot. And it's not a Michelin problem. This is our problem. Zarco's bike accelerated better. It's really amazing that Tech3 manages to get more out of tires than us. ».
He pursues : " we are no longer talking about old chassis or not, the subject is the use of the rear tire. Especially when temperatures rise. We work, but we can't find anything. Fortunately, we have a test at Misano before Silverstone. I want to work on it with a chassis, concentrate on it, we need to progress. But if we don't change something essential, it will be impossible ».
« I had problems following Zarco and I couldn't say why. He's done a very good job, but he's not the man to focus on. He finished seven seconds behind the leaders. You have to look at Marc and Dovi, who played up front. We weren't good. Maybe we should stop changing chassis all the time. Today, the Hondas surprised me with acceleration. I couldn't do anything against Pedrosa ».
He finishes : " During this season I changed my riding style because I was braking really hard and I was aggressive on the throttle. It worked well. Now, I am gentler in each phase of driving to get the time. But with the hard tire it is impossible to operate the motorcycle. Maybe we should focus on working the soft tire over the length of a race ».
Next meeting in two weeks at Silverstone. Before that, we will watch the tests in Misano…
#AustrianGP MotoGP J.3 Viñales: Ranking
| 1 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 39'43.323 |
| 2 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | +0.176 |
| 3 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | +2.661 |
| 4 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | +6.663 |
| 5 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | +7.262 |
| 6 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +7.447 |
| 7 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +8.995 |
| 8 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | +14.515 |
| 9 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Ducati | +19.620 |
| 10 | 36 | Mika Kallio | KTM | +19.766 |
| 11 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | +20.101 |
| 12 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Ducati | +25.523 |
| 13 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | +26.700 |
| 14 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | +27.321 |
| 15 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | +28.096 |
| 16 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | +32.912 |
| 17 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Ducati | +34.112 |
| 18 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | +36.423 |
| 19 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Honda | +42.404 |
| 20 | 22 | Sam LOWES | Aprilia | +52.492 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 43 | Jack Miller | Honda | 9 lapses | |
| 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 22 lapses | |
| 94 | Jonas Folger | Yamaha | 25 lapses | |
| 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 26 lapses |
