MotoGP Motegi: Maverick Vinales "Disappointing qualifying, if I knew Rossi was glued to me I would slow down...maybe"

Maverick Vinales only finished qualifying at Motegi in 7th place, more than half a second from Valentino Rossi's pole position. At the end of qualifying, the Suzuki rider is certainly not satisfied with the result, due to the poor feeling he has with his bike here: the problems come mainly in braking and at the start of corners, where the Spaniard hopes to be able to improve tomorrow by changing the set up . Vinales then claims that he didn't realize at the end of the session that Rossi was behind him, if he had known he would have turned off the gas, perhaps he added cryptic.

“Today if I had had a better feeling I could have taken pole – said Maverick Vinales – we worked mainly on the setup to improve braking but instead of improving we got worse. Now with the bike straight I really can't brake and when I start the bend the bike is very heavy. Tomorrow in the warm up I will try to go back because I don't feel good riding like this. I was hoping for something more, especially after finishing the last three races on the front row. Tomorrow will be tough, if I find a good setup I will be able to fight with those in front. In the last free practice session I was the only one to run on the hard tire and I had an average pace of 1:45, so it means that on the soft I can do a low 1:45 like Marc and Aleix, so if we work well I can compete for it Tomorrow"

In the end you helped Rossi get to pole...
“I didn't think Rossi was behind me. I thought he had stopped with Marc, otherwise I would have closed the gas, perhaps..."

Photos: Alex Farinelli