Maverick Vinales Reveals Chronology of Fall in Final Lap of MotoGP Portugal 2024

Maverick Vinales revealed the chronology of why he fell in the final lap of the main race MotoGP Portugal 2024 at the end of last week. The Aprilia Racing racer said this happened because his motorbike had a problem where he could not shift fifth gear to sixth position.

Vinales started the 2024 Porutgal MotoGP weekend in a very extraordinary way. He secured a start in second position and then managed to win the sprint race, which was his first win with the factory Aprilia team since moving at the end of the 2021 season.

Unfortunately, Top Gun – Vinales’ nickname – ultimately returned home from the Algerve Circuit with no points from the main race. Because, after being in second place behind Jorge Martin throughout the race, he actually fell at Turn 1 with two laps remaining in the race.

Before falling, Vinales seemed to lift his right leg as he crossed the straight track at the start line until he was overtaken by Enea Bastianini. The racer from Spain also told how the unfortunate incident started and happened to him.

“As I was on the straight on the hill, I tried to engage sixth gear – but it didn’t work. Instead, my motorbike suddenly stopped. This caused the engine to go into the rev limiter. I then stuck out my leg to show Bastianini that I I had a problem with my motorbike,” said Vinales as quoted by Speedweek, Tuesday (26/3/2024).

“Then I tried again to use sixth gear. Later I wanted to shift to second gear. And when I stepped on the gas, the gear suddenly went into gear and I immediately fell,” he said.

Vinales really regrets the accident he experienced in the main race of the 2024 Portuguese MotoGP. He also admitted that he felt sick after falling, but was lucky that the next race was only three weeks away so he had plenty of time to recover.

“I’m a little sore, but it’s okay. I now have three weeks to recover. But it’s a shame, I want to ride again tomorrow with this feeling,” explained the 29 year old rider.

Furthermore, the former Yamaha rider revealed again about his regrets. He said, from the start he was confident that he could win the race again and that could have been achieved if the accident had not happened to him.

“I prayed that the gear would go in, I tapped the gear lever about five times. Sometimes things like that can happen. But I prefer it to happen when I’m in front,” said the 171 cm racer.

“I believed throughout the race that I could fight for victory. But every lap I lost about 0.2 seconds on the straight and then overtook again. With this problem I rode (Each lap in time) 1 minute 38.8 seconds – without “My problem will be to achieve a constant 1 minute 38.6 seconds and thus win the race,” he concluded.

(fly)