The Catalan Aprilia rider leaves Mandalika stronger: P4 in the sprint race, P2 in the long race and P6 in the general table
“I had to wait until the last lap to attack ‘Pecco’, because I didn’t know if the same thing as yesterday was going to happen to me with the tires,” he commented.
The Catalan Maverick Viñales, which was second at the Indonesian MotoGP Grand Prix and he dressed up as Batman on the podiumleaves Mandalika with a “spectacular mouthfeel“since he is fighting “to be ahead every weekend of competition.”
The one from Aprilia, who yesterday was already one of the protagonists of the sprint race although he ended up going backwards due to tire wearhas once again demonstrated today that if the rest of the conditions accompany him, he is one of the fashionable men of MotoGP.
Ducati is “one step ahead. We are trying to resolve certain aspects of the bike, which is not easy, so we need a little more time,” he commented, evaluating his state of form very positively. “Just like yesterday, I had a ‘drop’ with the rear tire, so I had to control the entire race.
“Yesterday I didn’t control it and that was the problemI pushed, pushed and pushed to try to open a gap and the performance of the bike dropped a lot at the end of the race. Today I wanted to maintain a more constant line, in fact, the last lap was very good“he added.
Regarding the fall of Jorge Martín, Viñales admitted that he had not seen it well. “I had a lot of margin and I didn’t expect it, although I have seen that it has gone very long. It was probably a problem with a dirty track, because he went a little off the line. When ‘Pecco’ passed me, I accelerated through the dirty part and when entering the curve he hit me so hard that I almost fell… It was very dangerous to go off the right line“.
“When I first saw myself I thought ‘ok, Now you go first, control the rhythm and control more than ever that the rubber does not heat up and let it go to the end. I have tried and we have done the best we could, but it has not been enough,” he added about his race strategy once Martín disappeared from it.
From his fight with Fabio Quartararo He said he had his “doubts. I knew I had something extra to do a ‘turn’ and get closer to Pecco, but I didn’t know when to do it seeing that Fabio was very, very close. I had to wait until the last lap. I imagine that Fabio did not expect that the last lap would be like thisthat’s why I have been able to have a little space with him and I haven’t given him the chance to attack me“explained the Aprilia rider.