After a strong start to the season, including a victory, Maverick Viñales has hit a rough patch. In the MotoGP Catalan GP Sprint race, he finished eighth, while his teammate Aleix Espargaró clinched the win. Massimo Rivola, Aprilia’s CEO, admitted the result fell short of expectations.
Rivola expressed disappointment, especially considering Viñales’ previous success: ‘To be honest, it’s been a bit disappointing race weekend so far, but even starting from his position [14th], Marc [Márquez] showed that if there is a pace, it’s possible to fight for the podium. I didn’t expect to have this kind of situation with him, because he was always super fast in all the races apart from the first one. The bike proved the performance is there, so I expect him to recover and to have finally quite a strong start and fight. I want to see him fighting’.
On the other hand, Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia) was battling for points until he crashed while running seventh, starting from 15th on the grid. Rivola offered his support to the Portuguese rider, refraining from blaming him:
– Miguel is getting there. He was fast on Friday. He had again a very strong start, he was fast, he crashed, but we know that there was something wrong. So I don’t want to blame him. He was out of the Q1 for not much, it’s four tenths from pole position and he’s starting far away, but this is MotoGP today. I think he missed just the last couple of tenths, but he’s there, he’s coming.