“We need to maintain a positive outlook. I won’t say it’s a letdown, but it can serve as a wake-up call to strive for better reliability,” Vinales stated. Despite the public perception of Vinales as temperamental and capricious, he has shown an uncanny ability throughout his MotoGP career to handle significant setbacks with grace. Even after his disappointing exit at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Vinales refrained from expressing negative sentiments. He did, however, use profanity once when he exclaimed, “I’m f***ing happy!”.
The breakdown of Vinales’ bike on the final lap and subsequent crash didn’t seem to faze him. Although his post-race comments hinted at the loss of a potential double podium and a nearly perfect 37-point weekend, which seemed unlikely given his previous struggles with the Aprilia RS-GP this season, Vinales remained composed. His teammate, Aleix Espargaro, expressed his disappointment, acknowledging Vinales’ fantastic performance at Portimao.
Vinales’ victory in the Saturday sprint race, although gifted by Pecco Bagnaia’s error, provided some solace. However, the value of a sprint win or podium pales in comparison to a successful Sunday race. While Bagnaia’s mistake increased Vinales’ Saturday points from nine to 12, the issue on Sunday cost him 20 points. Vinales even argues that it may have cost him 25 points, and his argument is compelling.
“It’s remarkable how fast I can go with this bike when I find the right balance,” Vinales explained. “Despite the issues I had from lap six, where I struggled to shift from fifth to sixth gear, causing me to hit the RPM limit for an extended period, I still managed to achieve a lap time of 1m38s. It was truly amazing.”
Vinales’ explanation shed light on his race performance. He consistently closed the gap to race leader Jorge Martin through the downhill right-handers at the end of each lap, only to lose momentum at the start of the next lap. At the time, it was perplexing. While the Ducati has more power than the Aprilia, the difference shouldn’t have been as significant, especially considering the nature of the final corner. Vinales’ speed trap figures for each lap clearly illustrate the situation. In the sprint race, he consistently reached speeds above 339km/h, while in the main race, he only surpassed that speed in nine out of 23 laps. Additionally, he was constantly trailing behind his competitors. In contrast, his teammate Espargaro never dipped below 341.7km/h in the speed trap.
“I kept praying for the sixth gear to engage. I would press the shift button multiple times before it finally shifted,” Vinales recalled. “Sometimes these things happen, and unfortunately, it happened here. I would prefer it to occur when I’m leading the race. Imagine if I were in tenth place when it happened; I would be extremely disappointed. But right now, I’m highly motivated, and I believe I can win another race today.”
Although catching Martin and overtaking him are two different challenges, Vinales had enough reserves in every aspect of his race to give it a strong effort. “Throughout the race, I believed I could fight for the win,” he stated. “The only issue was that the gearbox kept deteriorating, causing me to lose time on the main straight. I was losing 0.2s on the main straight but managed to close the gap again. Despite all these problems, I consistently stayed in the 1m38.8s range, which was unbelievable. I’m extremely happy, and I don’t know what else to say.”
Fortunately, Vinales emerged from the crash unharmed, although he experienced some minor pain. With three weeks until the next race in the US, he has ample time to recover. It’s disappointing because he would have loved to race again tomorrow with the same feeling he had. However, the fact remains that if the race were rerun the following day, there is a high chance that the RS-GP would encounter the same issues.
“I strongly encourage the Aprilia technicians to address this area and improve the bike’s reliability,” Vinales emphasized. “If we want to compete for victories every weekend, it’s crucial.”
Espargaro believes that the issue is a recurrence of the problem that caused Vinales’ RS-GP’s chain to snap at Jerez last year. Vinales himself isn’t entirely certain, but he mentioned that it felt similar to the issue he experienced on the bike. Regardless, the result remains the same: zero points.
The Aprilia RS-GP is an impressive and formidable machine, and it isn’t notoriously unreliable. It usually performs well. However, compared to its MotoGP counterparts, it stands out as less reliable due to occasional technical issues leading to retirements (except for ride height device failures, which occur more frequently). At Portimao, the new RS-GP showcased the version of Vinales that Aprilia had hoped for when they signed him, a version that any manufacturer in MotoGP would eagerly re-sign. Unfortunately, this version doesn’t appear every weekend, and that’s something Vinales needs to address. At Portimao, despite battling a debilitating bout of gastroenteritis, he delivered an exceptional performance.
The least the bike could have done for him was to carry him to the finish line.