Fifth in the main race of sunday at France, Maverick Viñales had some issues with the tyre drop and couldn’t attack more during the race. Still there was a moment he believed he could have still got closer to the riders in front but it wasn’t possible, however, he is certain, these are the kind of GPs that will make him get better.
The Aprilia rider recalled a moment of the race in which he had some interesting battles, but wasn’t able to do more because of his tyre conditions: ‘I defended the position because I truly believed I had much more at the time. Then, with DiGia [Fabio Di Giannantonio], we have closed the gap. I went wide, I made a mistake and Marc [Márquez] passed me inside, but then he was there the whole time. And when we passed DiGia, I really believed that we had the pace to catch up with those in front. In fact, I have seen them close and from one lap to the next, seven tenths slower. I haven’t been able to do much more. My tyre has fallen a lot’.
Viñales problems didn’t end there, with he himself to recall the start of the race where he had a few issues too, with him being maybe… to generous: ‘The start was good, when I took off the device I got whiplash on the bike and I went straight. Then I tried to enter. Maybe I have been too kind. It seemed like too much to me, because I also let DiGia pass, but it is what it is’.
He did tried to do something but couldn’t make it, and, looking overall, he sees this GP in Le Mans as positive and an important step on his journey to get to become an even better rider:
– I tried to stop him from the outside, hard, to see if he could get in front of me. Oh well. All in all, I think it has been a very good weekend. We have taken advantage of the opportunities and will continue to grow. These weekends help to grow, so you have to be positive and with a very open mind to know that another circuit may be a weekend like this and react sooner to have a better series.