Maverick Vinales was left to rue continuing traction problems with his M1 Yamaha as he failed to convert pole position to a win in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano.
The Spaniard eventually secured third behind eventual winner Marc Marquez and Petronas SRT Yamaha satellite man Fabio Quartararo, taking the chequered flag just 1.6 seconds behind.
Vinales missed out on taking his second victory of the season in a similar fashion as Silverstone three weeks ago, as he fought back in the closing stages to finish just six-tenths from the lead in third place.
While satisfied to finally score his maiden premier class podium at the 4.2km Misano venue, Vinales feels that short-comings with the electronics equipped to his M1 are exacerbating the traction issues that have characterised the Japanese machine all season, and that a break-through in this area could yield great rewards.
“Honestly we are getting there, I’ve never had a podium here at Misano so it’s a track normally I struggle at and now we head to a track I really love at Aragon and which I’m very fast, so it’s important to make sure the consistency is there to have a good result,” said Vinales.
“Importantly the consistency is there and we are taking podiums and I know the victory will come again soon, I just need to keep working and trying to be at the maximum level I can be.
“For sure we have to work harder with the electronics, I feel we need to be better in that area, but in the way of riding style we have improved a lot so we just need to keep working like that.
“We are definitely losing in the traction zones, we have no traction but this is not an excuse and even if it isn’t a bike issue and its with myself we need to find a solution, as we are now on a good level and less than a second from the top so we need to keep heading in this direction.”
