GP of Emilia Romagna – Maverick Viñales, winner of the Grand Prix of the trials in Misano! – Used YAMAHA

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Maverick Viñales, winner of the Misano Trials Grand Prix !

GP of Emilia Romagna - Maverick Viñales, winner of the Grand Prix of the trials in Misano! - Used YAMAHA

Maverick Viñales is definitely an enigma: brilliant on Saturday with his record pole at the San Marino GP, he collapsed too often on Sunday to finish sixth. And the next day, the Yamaha official set again the best time of the official post-race practice at Misano… Decryption and rankings.

"It’s frustrating to be so good in practice and then to achieve nothing in the race because the bike doesn’t work," said Viñales on Sunday evening. "Tests are scheduled for tomorrow and it will be as usual: I will have a lot of grip and everything will work well, but the same problems will reappear in the next race" (scheduled this weekend on the same circuit, Editor’s note)…

  • GP of Emilia Romagna:
  • GP of San Marino:
  • MNC special file : 

In accordance with his forecasts, the n ° 12 seized the best time of the tests organized after the Grand Prix of San Marino. The official Yamaha went down to 1’31.532 in the last half hour, a big tenth of his pole record achieved on Saturday in 1’31.411. "Mack" precedes Takaaki Nakagami, who (re) discovered the RCV 2020 on the motorcycle of Marc Marquez’s replacement, Stefan Bradl. 

Johann Zarco, author of an anonymous 15th place in the race, is cheering up with a good third position during these tests. The French are the best Ducati representative, while Andrea Dovizioso did not ride in the afternoon: for the moment without handlebars in 2021, the n ° 4 judged to have completed the test program in view of the little ‘evolutions available !

Viñales, like a plane without zeal

In short: Viñales is a plane in testing … then its wings fall in the race! Here he is 5th in the championship after six events in the same vein, with the added bonus of a fall for lack of brake in Austria! Disappointing insofar as the absence of Marquez opened the royal road to the title … As well as in Dovizioso, Rins, Rossi and Quartararo, who also struggle to benefit from it..

 GP of Emilia Romagna - Maverick Viñales, winner of the Grand Prix of the trials in Misano! - Used YAMAHA

For Maverick Viñales, this recurring problem stems from his motorcycle which would mysteriously lose all grip overnight: the M1 works brilliantly during practice and turns into a wet firecracker on Sunday. However, the Spanish neglects an important point: his often ill-advised choices, revealing of his indecisive character..

Example this weekend in Misano: out of 21 riders at the start, Viñales is the only one to start with the hard rear tire at the rear while all the Top 5 riders start in medium (Mobidelli, Mir and Rossi) or even tender for Bagnaia and Rins, respectively second and fifth in the Grand Prix on their Ducati and Suzuki.

Michelin had however warned: if its medium and hard slicks displayed an extremely similar level of performance, the activation of the "Hard" would logically be more laborious during the first laps, the time to bring it to the right temperature. Viñales, who cannot express his speed in the peloton when his bike is full, has suffered.

New exhaust at Yamaha and Honda, new chassis at KTM

This day of testing on the Italian track was an opportunity for manufacturers to test new features, including a new exhaust on official Yamaha: much longer and curved at right angles at its end, this new pot contrasts radically with the current short and bevelled exit of the M1. 

 GP of Emilia Romagna - Maverick Viñales, winner of the Grand Prix of the trials in Misano! - Used YAMAHA

Viñales and Rossi (15th in this test) also tested another version of the swingarm that would not have convinced them. Fabio Quartararo, who had gone wrong twice in Misano, for his part accumulated laps (56 in all) to regain confidence with 7th place. His teammate Franco Morbidellli, winner on Sunday, for his part did not ride due to "stomach aches"…

Maybe a rest of Sunday evening necessarily festive of the Italian-Brazilian pilot? It’s not every day that we sign our first victory in the premier category of motorcycle sport … and on the Yamaha the least evolved of the four entered on the market. ! 

KTM also came with plenty of upgrades to test, including a new chassis and a redesigned aero fairing. Pol Espargaro was at ease with these novelties as he dominated the first part of the day before falling back to 6th place.

Alex Marquez seeks solutions, Marc resumes training

At Honda, Alex Marquez was also testing a new exhaust: Marc’s little brother – who is resuming running for the first time six weeks after his arm operation – signs the 9th fastest time of this day between Brad Binder and Jack Miller. Aprilia was working on his assistant at the start "holeshot device" and new settings.

Finally, Suzuki released new chassis solutions which did not completely seduce Alex Rins (4th in the test) and Joan Mir (5th). The two teammates then preferred to focus on tire management and fine-tuning the electronics of their GSX-RR, which is now proving formidable on most circuits..

MotoGP radio communication system under test

It should be noted that these official tests were also the opportunity to test again a radio communication system between the pilots and the race management, via headphones in the helmet. This device worn by Bradl during free practice aims to communicate safety instructions in real time: fall, yellow or red flags, penalties, etc..

Objective: to avoid misunderstandings related to the difficult and necessarily limited reading of the information on and / or on the panels brandished by the teams above the pit lane wall. The pilots praise the excellent listening quality of this radio system, but point to the inevitable deconcentration it entails….

  • MNC of August 12, 2016: Pilots informed in real time on the dashboard 

The promoter of the Grands Prix, Dorna, nevertheless plans to extend this radio communication between drivers and the team, as in Formula 1. At the risk of creating strategic deviations in MotoGP as in F1: the team could advise its driver to slow down or to accelerate in real time according to the position of its rivals in the championship. 

"We had already tested the system with several pilots in the past and they found it a little disturbing", recalls Carmelo Ezpeletta, "but great technological progress has been made in recent years and these tests have gone rather well this time. ".

Ranking of post-race practice at Misano

  1. VIÑALES, Maverick 1: 31.532 
  2. NAKAGAMI, Takaaki 1: 31.803 0.271
  3. ZARCO, Johann 1: 31.899 0.367
  4. RINS, Alex 1: 32.114 0.582
  5. MIR, Joan 1: 32.162 0.630
  6. ESPARGARO, Pol 1: 32.255 0.723
  7. QUARTARARO, Fabio 1: 32.336 0.804
  8. BINDER, Brad 1: 32.453 0.92
  9. MARK, Alex 1: 32.480 0.948
  10. MILLER, Jack 1: 32.510 0.978 
  11. OLIVEIRA, Miguel 1: 32.565 1.033
  12. SMITH, Bradley 1: 32.590 1.058
  13. ESPARGARO, Aleix 1: 32.650 1.118
  14. PETRUCCI, Danilo 1: 32.679 1.147
  15. ROSSI, Valentino 1: 32.946 1.414
  16. RABAT, Tito 1: 33.306 1.774

Provisional MotoGP 2020 classification after the San Marino GP in Misano

  1.  Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 76
  2. Fabio QUARTARARO Yamaha 70
  3. Jack MILLER Ducati 64
  4. Joan MIR Suzuki 60
  5. Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha 58
  6. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 58
  7. Franco MORBIDELLI Yamaha 57
  8. Brad BINDER KTM 53
  9. Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda 53
  10. Miguel OLIVEIRA KTM 48
  11. Pol ESPARGARO KTM 41
  12. Alex RINS Suzuki 40
  13. Johann ZARCO Ducati 31
  14. Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati 29
  15. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati 25
  16. Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia 18
  17. Alex MARQUEZ Honda 15
  18. Iker LECUONA KTM 15
  19. Bradley SMITH Aprilia 8
  20. Tito RABAT Ducati 7
  21. Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda 7
  22. Michele PIRRO Ducati 4

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