Until mass on Sunday, Maverick Viñales had every reason to be happy with his journey on a Mugello track which was hosting the Italian Grand Prix. Reassured about his future with a two-year contract with Yamaha, estimated at 3,5 million euros, he narrowly missed pole position against his illustrious future teammate Rossi. In the morning, before the hostilities, he presented himself as the fastest in the peloton. So we were going to see what we were going to see in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, that's when the Suzuki decided to act up. In passing, we note that a spell must have been cast on the first row of this sixth round of the MotoGP calendar. Red on pole gave up and Casa Particular in Viñales as Iannone missed their flight. The 21-year-old Spaniard explains: “ we had an electronic problem. Quite simply, the bike was no longer moving forward, no longer giving any power. Everyone overtook me. And the problem disappeared as soon as I moved to the next gear ».
This is how, in a fraction of a second, all the work of two days and several test sessions was ruined. Eleventh and stuck in the peloton, the 3 Moto2013 World Champion then moved up to sixth after ten laps. A comeback that had a price: “ I had put a lot of strain on my tires at the start, much more than if I had found myself among the first. With four laps to go, I was really at the limit and I couldn't attack. I had already come close to falling several times. So I said to myself: okay, sixth place will be mine ».
An assessment that leaves him wanting more: “ I'm very disappointed, we had worked really well throughout the weekend and we couldn't get the result we deserved. I really had the feeling that we could fight for the podium. I was very comfortable during practice and warm-up, I was confident for the race. The bike ran well with these settings. When I broke away from the peloton, I caught up a lot on Dani Pedrosa. I had the same rhythm as Jorge and Marc. With a good start, I would have been in the game. But once again, I didn't have the chance to show it. We need to review the data with engineers to understand what happened in order to resolve the issue ". An expertise which will also take place at Yamaha, for other reasons…
