Last year, Maverick Vinales literally dominated winter testing before winning the first two races of the season.
Then, after a misstep in the USA, Jerez proved to be the first alert of a long and frustrating disappointment which would undermine the nerves of the Yamaha rider.
This year, the USA seemed to be exactly the opposite, namely the moment where he finally found excellent sensations behind the handlebars of his M1.
Explanations at hand, the man from Figueras did not hide his enthusiasm, nor his impatience to meet up in Jerez to confirm all of this.
Unfortunately, 9th this morning and 10th this afternoon, it only took 2 sessions for the Spaniard to see his dreams turn into a nightmare, leaving him rather disillusioned and, for the moment, not qualified for Q2, in 12th position overall…
Maverick Viñales: “It was a lot harder than I expected today. I arrived in Jerez with a different attitude, and it's only Friday, so we still have a lot of time to work, and to improve our performance today. In the braking zones we have improved, but the steering behavior in the corners and the lack of grip are the biggest problems. Electronics also increase the grip problem. It's the same as last year, so I can't say if we've improved from last year. I felt good in Austin, where I felt like we improved a lot from last year. Then I got here and I'm a lot slower. With higher temperatures we have more problems. Normally the harder tire solves our problems, here it reinforces them. A difficult day, because my expectations were fundamentally different.”
Yamaha is one of the rare teams not to have carried out a test on the new Andalusian surface. The thing was considered a mistake by Valentino Rossi. On this subject, Maverick Vinales is more cautious…
“Difficult to say, Zarco is third. It's very difficult for me because I have a very different feeling than Austin. My bike is different on each track. And our opponents took a big step forward during the winter tests, but not us. This is why I have to constantly change my riding style. In Austin, I was able to brake late and attack the corners completely, but this is impossible in Jerez. When the bike is working, I can be very fast.”
Massimo Meregalli: “We knew we would have a bit of catching up to do on the first day in Jerez, because we didn't attend testing here earlier this year, but we expected to do better in this stage. Both our drivers gave positive feedback on the new asphalt, its surface is better, but in terms of grip it was not as good. As in the past, times vary considerably depending on temperatures. We used both sessions to gather as much information as possible, trying different settings and tire specifications. In the end, when we put on the soft tire to do the time, our expectations were not met. We need to improve speed and pace, the latter being the most important for racing. We only have two sessions to do this, but I am confident that our engineers will find a good solution.”
Tomorrow is another day…
Jerez MotoGP J.1 Combined Chronos:
1 35 LCR Honda CASTROL C.CRUTCHLOW GBR HONDA 1'38.614
2 26 Repsol Honda Team D.PEDROSA SPA HONDA 1'38.642 +0.028
3 5 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 J.ZARCO FRA YAMAHA 1'38.705 +0.091
4 29 Team SUZUKI ECSTAR A.IANNONE ITA SUZUKI 1'38.709 +0.095
5 93 Repsol Honda Team M.MARQUEZ SPA HONDA 1'38.863 +0.154
6 4 Ducati Team A.DOVIZIOSO ITA DUCATI 1'39.068 +0.454
7 99 Ducati Team J.LORENZO SPA DUCATI 1'39.076 +0.462
8 43 Alma Pramac Racing J.MILLER AUS DUCATI 1'39.102 +0.488
9 46 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP V.ROSSI ITA YAMAHA 1'39.248 +0.634
10 44 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing P.ESPARGARO SPA KTM 1'39.311 +0.697
11 9 Alma Pramac Racing D.PETRUCCI ITA DUCATI 1'39.429 + 0.815
12 25 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP M.VIÑALES SPA YAMAHA 1'39.514 +0.900
13 17 Angel Nieto Team K.ABRAHAM CZE DUCATI 1'39.541 +0.927
14 42 Team SUZUKI ECSTAR A.RINS SPA SUZUKI 1'39.575 +0.961
15 45 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini S.REDDING GBR APRILIA 1'39.585 +0.971
16 36 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing M.KALLIO FIN KTM 1'39.661 +1.047
17 30 LCR Honda IDEMITSU T.NAKAGAMI JPN HONDA 1'39.694 +1.080
18 53 Reale Avintia Racing T.RABAT SPA DUCATI 1'39.888 +1.274
19 41 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini A.ESPARGARO SPA APRILIA 1'39.899 +1.285
20 38 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing B.SMITH GBR KTM 1'39.948 +1.334
21 21 EG 0,0 Marc VDS F.MORBIDELLI ITA HONDA 1'39.951 +1.337
22 19 Angel Nieto Team A.BAUTISTA SPA DUCATI 1'39.969 +1.355
23 12 EG 0,0 Marc VDS T.LUTHI SWI HONDA 1'40.241 +1.627
24 55 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 H.SYAHRIN MAL YAMAHA 1'40.488 +1.874
25 10 Reale Avintia Racing X.SIMEON BEL DUCATI 1'40.663 +2.049
