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Vinales suffered "same problem as always" in the wet
Maverick Vinales was left frustrated by Suzuki’s lack of competitiveness in wet conditions at Sepang, blaming his lack of pace on the “same problem as always”.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Oct 31, 2016, 3:43 PM
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While the Japanese manufacturer has become a regular podium contender in the dry, it has yet to master setting up the GSX-RR for wet conditions, and has struggled in particular in optimising its electronics to suit a slippery track.
Vinales – who took the marque's first win since 2007 at Silverstone – registered Suzuki's best wet-weather result of the year at Sepang by finishing sixth, albeit only after Cal Crutchlow, Marc Marquez and Andrea Iannone crashed out ahead of him.
Having topped a dry morning warm-up session, Vinales struggled to hide his exasperation at his team failing to find an electronics set-up that would have allowed him to emulate his dry pace.
"We're disappointed obviously because in the dry I think I could have pushed like at Silverstone," said the Spaniard, who has one race left as a Suzuki rider at Valencia before switching to Yamaha.
"This morning I felt so good and the tyres were [staying] in really good condition after 11 laps. In the rain, it was the same problem as always.
"The traction control was coming on too late and for me it was impossible to open the gas. In the corners we were really competitive, but then on the gas it was quite a disaster.
"Going behind [Hector] Barbera and [Loris] Baz, I was able to close the gap on braking, but on acceleration it was impossible [to keep up]. I was risking all the time to make a high-side.
"For sure I'm not happy because I came here to win, and we proved in the dry I was really fast. But I'm happy with sixth because it could be much worse."
Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont
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