Maverick Vinales revealed that a gearbox issue from the sixth lap onwards contributed to his last lap crash from second place in MotoGP’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
Having won the Sprint earlier in the weekend, Vinales was tracking eventual victor Jorge Martin throughout the race despite combating a gear selection problem.
However, the Spaniard’s Aprilia went into neutral when changing between fifth and sixth gear on the penultimate lap on the pit straight, prompting him to slow down.
Heading into the final lap of the encounter at Portimao, Vinales touched the accelerator while in second gear and high-sided as his bike went into the opening turn.
“Well after the uphill on the finish line I tried to put sixth but it didn’t go in,” he explained to Motorsport.com when asked what happened when he slowed onto the last lap.
“So, the bike goes into neutral and I hit the limiter.
“I just put out the leg to [warn] Bastianini to understand that I had some problems [and] to go away.
“I tried to put sixth, it didn’t go in, I go back to second and when I touched the gas it went in immediately and I highsided.”
Although the issue cost him a shot at challenging Martin for the lead, Vinales believes Aprilia should take positives out of the pace he could achieve prior to his incident.
“I think we must be positive,” he added. “I would say it’s not a disappointment, but I will say it as maybe a call of attention, trying to improve in some ways a little bit the reliability.
“I really encourage all of the Aprilia technicians to improve on that area, especially if you want to fight for victories.
“After that I think it’s been amazing how when I get the correct balance I can go really fast on this bike.
“Despite the problems I had from lap six, from fifth to sixth gear sometimes it didn’t go in.
“So, I was keeping the rpms for so long and I was losing a lot on top speed. I was losing some tenths, but despite that I was able to do 1m38s and that was amazing.”
