Vinales’ frustration at Suzuki acceleration deficit mounts

Maverick Vinales was unable to hide his disappointment at falling short of the frontrunners in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, pointing to his Suzuki bike’s weakness in acceleration.

Maverick Viñales, Team Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP

Tito Rabat, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS

Aleix Espargaro, Team Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP

The Spaniard ended up sixth in Q2, 0.442s off the pace of poleman Andrea Iannone, having been second fastest earlier in the day during third practice.

Acceleration and top speed had proved Suzuki’s biggest weakness during its first year back in the premier class in 2015, although improvements to the GSX-RR’s engine and gearbox over the winter have made the manufacturer more competitive.

But Vinales said that acceleration – especially in the initial phase of the corner exit – is still a major issue for his team, and expressed frustration at being unable to push harder.

"We improved a little bit from the morning, but not enough, the others improved more," said Vinales. "The problem is the first part of the acceleration [zone].

"I don't know if [the gap is] from the electronics or from the set-up, but this morning I was feeling really good, I wasn't pushing 100 percent when I did the [1m]23.7s.

"I tried to save some tenths for qualifying. So, then I went to the qualifying, the temperature was high and it was impossible to do a good acceleration.

"On the full banking I was touching the gas and sliding quite a lot. I don't know, we need to find as fast as we can, because it's always the same thing.

"It starts to be a little bit complicated to know that, when you need to push 100 percent, you can't."

Injured Espargaro satisfied

Teammate Aleix Espargaro meanwhile ended up ninth fastest in qualifying, rebounding from a fractured finger on Friday.

While admitting the injury was giving him discomfort, he was upbeat about his performance, saying that the GSX-RR’s revised winglets had made a palpable difference.

"We have less wheelie, we can use a lot more power on the acceleration, so this is one big advantage," said Espargaro.

"Even with the injury, six tenths off pole position, I'm happy.

"The advantage of the Ducati is that they can use a lot of power with the front wheel on the ground.

"We decided to push the Japanese [engineers] with the winglets, they did a great job and we have a lot bigger winglets, so the bike is a little bit better in acceleration."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont