Pace setter Vinales ‘feeling better’ with every lap

Maverick Vinales sets the pace on Friday for the Andalucia MotoGP as he hopes to make a breakthrough on race performance
Pace setter Vinales ‘feeling better’ with every lap

Maverick Vinales says tweaks to his Yamaha in FP1 are giving him confidence of a more convincing bid for victory in the Andalucia MotoGP after being outclassed by his stablemate Fabio Quartararo last weekend at the same Jerez circuit.

The Spaniard ended day one of free practice with the fastest time after posting a 1m 37.063secs lap, just three tenths shy of the record-breaking pole lap achieved by Quartararo in qualifying six days ago.

Holding that position in the warmer and slower FP2, Vinales spent his afternoon working on race set-up, in particular trialling the harder front tyre having used the soft last weekend.

The Yamaha factory man is now confident he has found a breakthrough that will allow him to be more competitive in race trim on Sunday.

“I felt really good on the bike. We tried a new set-up, which is an improvement, and this is the most important thing. Lap by lap and practice by practice I’m feeling better. So, we need to keep working in this way, because I think that’s the way to bring the bike to the top.

“This afternoon I was working on the hard and the medium tyre. We need to understand how all the tyre specs work for us, because it will be really hot on Sunday, so we need to know what we can do. But the feeling is great with any tyre. We also worked a lot on the front tyre, and the feeling is good – better than it was last week.

“For sure, on Sunday we will have another tyre discussion, but in any case, I feel comfortable with the bike. I think we made an improvement compared to last week. I think this is a good test for us, we never raced at the same track twice in a row. The most important thing is to understand how we do better on race day.”

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