Maverick Vinales forced to retire in Jerez. An incredible trouble with his Aprilia stops him right on the last lap.
Maverick Vinales he didn’t shine at the weekend in Jerez. More generally, something more was expected from Aprilia. Instead, after Oliveira was immediately knocked out in Sunday’s race, neither Aleix Espargaro nor his boxmate managed to scratch in this first home event. However, Vinales was doing his job, limiting the damage and taking another one top 10. Or so we hoped, until the irreparable happened right on the last lap. His Aprilia lose a piecein the truest sense of the word, and the Spaniard is forced to retire!
GP undertone
In this beginning of the season it is a brand that, among the most awaited and “favourites”, is the one that it is missing. However, it seemed that the Aprilia guys could have their say in this MotoGP appointment Jerez. They had all behaved well, in Practice 2 they had emerged conquering the top of the standings both in the session and in the combined. In qualifying it had gone quite well, but the points are made in competition and everything was ready. At least this was what was hoped for, instead Vinales found himself a bit stuck in traffic in the Sprint and was only able to climb up to the 7th position, taking 3 points. Down Espargaro, Oliveira 5th instead had saved the Aprilia troop. There was a second occasion, the long race on Sunday. But Vinales has struggled with the temperature of the tyres, the difficulty of overtaking, finally the gears that no longer engaged. He was coming though a 8th placebut suddenly disappears from the standings, does not even reach the finish line. What happened? Here’s the reason: the chain! All that remains is withdrawal.
Definitely not the way Vinales expected to finish the #SpanishGP 🇪🇸
The Aprilia man lost his chain in the very last lap so he had to retire! 💔 #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/2QLS2umS2K
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 30, 2023
Vinales bitterness
As mentioned, it’s not exactly the GP we expected. It does even more bad because it happened right in front of the home crowd, which inflamed theatmosphere throughout the MotoGP weekend. Vinales, however, put the 2nd zero of the year in 4 GPs, the first had arrived with 10th place in the Austin Sprint, just outside the points zone in which only the first 9 on the grid fall. However, Vinales says he is happy to have solved the problem of the Departures, long his Achilles heel, but in the meantime other troubles appeared in the race. Tomorrow is day of test for everyone, Aprilia has to work to fix things. Ducati is flying, KTM is growing, there is a risk of miss the train.
