Maverick Vinales impact test: “The shoulder is perfect!”

Maverick Vinales emerged from the final day of the Sepang MotoGP test “sure” his injured shoulder has fully recovered, after unintentionally giving it an impact test.

The Tech3 KTM rider underwent surgery for ligament damage after being thrown from his bike in wet conditions during last July’s German MotoGP weekend.

The complicated injury blighted the remainder of his season, with Vinales forced to abandon an attempted comeback at the Austrian Grand Prix, then stepping aside again in Indonesia as pain and reduced strength persisted.

However, the winter break has given his right shoulder the time it needed to heal, something Vinales says he confirmed with a fall on the final day in Malaysia.

“Today I tested the shoulder well. I landed like this [on the shoulder] to the ground!” Maverick Vinales said. “It was the best test I could do. And the shoulder is perfect. So for me it’s totally healed.

“Still I have to work a little bit more, because I’ve lost a little bit of power. But I’m quite happy with my physical condition so far.”

Vinales, who quickly felt comfortable aboard the latest RC16, had been using the final day to experiment with set-up options.

“What I felt the best with was the bike I finished day one and started day two,” he explained. “That is the feeling I like the most and with that bike I’m quite satisfied to start the season.

“Then we used the final day to test many items and at the end of the day I had the crash, but it was not with the bike [configuration] I liked.

“And then the other bike was with a completely different setup, different riding position, so I wasn’t able to put a good time attack either.

“But I was happy with the lap time I did in day one and day two.”

Vinales - who was third fastest on day one, then fifth on day two - ended the Sepang test ninth on the combined timesheets, but just 0.010s behind the fastest KTM of Pedro Acosta.