Maverick Vinales didn't have a good day today in Motegi.
Already under pressure because of the 28 points he is behind in the championship over Marc Márquez, the Yamaha rider had to face the track conditions that he does not particularly like, unlike the Honda rider.
And, worst of all, the pre-2018 chassis, which largely addresses the rear end grip issues in the dry, does so much less effectively in the wet.
Number 25 therefore draws up exactly the same assessment as his teammate Valentino Rossi (see here), even if, conversely, he clearly does not want to dwell on the subject…
At the end of the first day, he is in 11th position and will therefore have to count on FP3 to try to advance directly to Q2. For this he will have an extra-soft tire that the two Movistar Yamaha riders did not use today.
Maverick Vinales : “It has been difficult throughout the year to be strong in the wet. We haven't found any good settings so far. The gap with the head is quite big, so we have to try to fine-tune the bike settings to improve the rear grip. It's a shame, because the conditions weren't really tricky and the track's grip level was good. We still have tomorrow's sessions to find a solution. »
Massimo Meregalli: “We did not expect to face such difficulties today. Unfortunately, we struggled with a lack of rear grip, particularly on corner entries, although the grip level on the Motegi track was still good. Our level of performance in wet conditions continues to be an area for improvement. We tried to resolve this issue during today's wet sessions, but we didn't get the progress we had hoped for. As we were not ready to use the extra soft tire, since we would not have been able to take advantage of its full advantage, we decided against using it, also because of the small quantity that the it was given to us. The weather conditions are expected to remain the same, so we will continue to attack in the rain, because we want to take a big step forward over the weekend for Sunday's race.
#JapanesGP MotoGP FP2 Ranking compiled by our friends at crash.net :
