Hopes were high for Maverick Viñales on Sunday in Mugello, he'd been strong for most of the weekend and was starting from the front row again. But issues off the start saw him concede a number of positions and drop down as low as 11th. After an eventful first lap the Team Suzuki Ecstar man rallied and began to push on the limit to make up the lost ground, this destroyed his tyres and stopped his charge. From lap ten to the end he held sixth position, ahead of his teammate but over eight seconds off the podium. With a pace similar to that of the leaders, a better start could have led to much more.
Viñales and Suzuki will now head to Valencia for a private test where they have a number of new parts to test. During the test Ken Kawauchi, Suzuki’s Technical Manager, is hopeful the team will find a solution to Viñales’ start woes in order to avoid the issue happening again. Round seven of the MotoGP™ World Championship will take place in Barcelona at the Montmelo circuit, the scene of Viñales’ first MotoGP™ front row in 2015. Expectations will again be high as all involved fight to get back on the podium and close down Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) in the championship standings.
Maverick Viñales: “I’m very disappointed with the race, we did really well the whole weekend and finally we couldn’t get the deserved result. I really had the feeling we could fight for the podium; both in practice and in warm up I felt very comfortable and confident for a good race. Unfortunately, all the problems came from the start: I had a good jump, but then when it came to put it into fourth-gear something went wrong with the bike’s acceleration and this made me lose so many positions. Then the problem disappeared and everything was working fine for the rest of the race, but because I was behind so many riders, and I had to push very hard to recover, this destroyed the tyres, which were finally too-worn to get closer. It’s a shame because according to the timesheets my pace was as good as the leaders, so this meant that with a good start I could have fought for the podium, which I felt was achievable for us. It’s a pity, but now I need to revise the data with my engineers and understand what happened in order to fix it.”