Maverick Viñales still has some rough edges to smooth out after the MotoGP preseason. The Aprilia rider finished sixth in the Qatar tests, 0.435s behind the fastest rider, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati).
The Spaniard told the press that he has improved in fast corners and is satisfied with his performance in those moments, but admitted that he continues to struggle with the engine brake: ‘I needed one more day at least – or two. I’m not still feeling perfectly. One good thing is that on the fast corners I feel really on the point, so I can push a lot. And that’s something very positive, because last year I struggled a little bit in the third sector and right now I recovered what I can do in the fast corners and this is fantastic. Normally I was always fast in the fast corners, despite I’ve never been very fast with this bike. So I’m really happy with that. Then of course I’m still struggling a lot with the engine brake. It’s not constant and when you go to the long race you see a lot of problems. So I did 18 laps trying to understand really well what I need. The bike and the behaviour of the tyre change a lot, so I think was great to do it’.
Regarding the possible resolution of his struggles, Viñales explained: ‘Just setting. We need to set up well the engine brake. I will not call problems, it’s something to solve. But I think it’s easier to solve than other things. There is still a lot of work to do during the race weekend’.