‘Frustrating’ but Oliveira inspired by Vinales: ‘He clicked, found the sweet spot’
Can Maverick Vinales’ Portimao breakthrough provide vi🐷tal clues for fellow factory-spec Aprilia rider Miguel Oliveira?
While 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Maverick Vinales made a dramatic breakthrough with the 2024 Aprilia in Portimao, Trackhouse rider 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Miguel Oliveira felt he is still ꧒taking ‘baby stepsꦜ’ with the factory-spec machine.
After a tough pre-season and opening Qatar round, Vinales romped to a Sprint victory in Portimao and was on course for a grand prix 🌠podiuꦚm until hitting gearbox problems.
The Spaniard’s last lap exit left team-mate Aleix Espargaro, who 🌊had shone on the 2024 RS-GP until Portimao, as the top Aprilia in eighth place, 1.5s clear of Oliveira.
“Real baby steps!” sai༒d Oliveira, when asked if he was progressing with the factory-spec bike. “Would have liked something bigger.”
The Por൩tuguese, who crossed the finish line 24s behind race winner Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), added:
“The feelin🐷g I have is good. I'm fully adapted to the Aprilia riding style and everything, but just the bike is not working as it should do and it's quite frustrating. But we need to keep working and try to find a way.”
While Espargaro has✨ something of a unique riding style, Vinales’ Portimao breakthrough could provide vital clues for Oliveira.
“Luckily we had an Aprilia winning the Sprint whic🐟h can allow us to compare ♏the data,” Oliveira had said on Saturday evening.
Although admitting Vinales is “for sure” a much closer match in terms of physical size and riding style, the five-time KTM Moto𝕴GP race winner was quick to credit ▨the #12:
“It's not only the [data] comparison, Maverick is riding very well. He is effortlessly riding quite good, doing really nice pick-ups [out of the corners] and seems not to have so much trouble🍎 to go in fast into the corners.
“I think he just clicked with the bike and there’s no coming back! I think he found the sweet spot for him and it's working. We are not there yet. I think♈ we are 95% there, b♏ut 5% now in MotoGP is a huge difference.”
The speed of Vinales’ turnaround, after barely breaking into the top ꦉten in Qatar, also highlighted how quickly things can change in MotoGP.
“We know this is the category. One day you can be deep in the mud, the other day you can be completely refreshed,” Oliveira sa🍎id. “And this is it, you know. We have to keep fighting, persisting and trying to find a way with the team.”
Oliveira will continue searching for the sweet spot on his 2024 RS-GP at the Trackhouse team’s home COTA round, t🌄his weekeജnd.
Team-mate Raul Fernandez, the only Aprilia rider now🥃 on the 2023 spec bike, is still seeking his first points of the year.
Peter has been in the paddock for 2🐻0 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
