While teammate Fabio Quartararo said he didn’t have an exciting morning at the expense of a specific afternoon, Maverick Vinales went in the opposite direction (literally). The best benchmark in the opening session of the free practice in 1’46.593 was answered by an opaque FP2 amid the ups and downs of Mugello. Despite a 17th place, the Spaniard’s name appears in the overall ranking in eighth place in the top 10.
“FP1 was really fantastic in every way, From the beginning times came easy without daring too much – said the new father – unfortunately In the afternoon I was unable to improve my time so far due to a bug with Arrabbiata 2. I pushed but landed over the curb, sometimes these things happen. So I am absolutely not disappointed and I think that tomorrow we will take a decisive step forward. “
Data situation, the 26-year-old was the only one (besides Johann Zarco) who did not improve in the afternoon session. This was due to the traffic and above all a “preheated” Michelin tire, one from another race weekend.
“Still, I tried a second attack, Unfortunately, I got some drivers in the way and they slowed me down. The preheated tire didn’t help me; we know that sometimes it doesn’t work the way it used to. This is exactly why we decided to use it today, tomorrow morning it is important to have fresh tires. “
Apart from the tire chapter, the Spaniard concentrated on the endurance race in FP2 and did some interesting laps with a view to Sunday’s race.
“I started the session on a pair of hard tires, but it wasn’t a good choice. I slid around on the stern, in fact, after only two laps, I returned to the pits. Later we built in used media that I was pretty competitive with and round in low 47s even though the drop was high. Similar to Le Mans, we still have to fine-tune some aspects such as the electronics and the set-up, but I’m confident, ”he said.