Vinales qualified 21st and finished the German GP in 19th place last weekend in an astounding performance that led him to denounce Yamaha’s apparent disrespect for dealing with his problems in 2021, claiming he would setup from team-mate Fabio Quartararo in Assen.
Although Vinales built one of his M1s like Quartararo’s motorcycle, he used exactly the same motorcycle that he had ridden in Germany all weekend in Assen – as the front runner in FP1, FP2, FP3 and then a new lap record in qualifying to line up for pole by 0.071 seconds over his teammate.
Vinales says the biggest boost this weekend has come from the new asphalt in Assen, which gives him the grip he needs to get the most out of his Yamaha.
“To be honest, that should be the norm on all weekends,” said Vinales of his Pole. “I think we are at a good level, our self-confidence is high.
“I have a really great confidence in what we can do, but we just haven’t found the way to do it. To be honest, thank God the FP1 was good, I have good grip, I can be fast.
“So that’s the problem. If we don’t have grip, we can’t improve and we try, we try a lot of things.
“To be honest, we didn’t touch anything this weekend. I said, “don’t touch the bike, it’s perfect”. And working on it, it was good, I’m pretty happy and now we’ll see.
“Tomorrow we have a good chance, we will get the most out of it.
“For me the result is not important, for me it is important to give my maximum from one to the 25th lap.
“To be honest, I didn’t even touch the bike – not even a click. As I said, thank God there is grip on the track and I have grip on the tires, I can be fast.
“On this type of bike you can be God and do nothing if you don’t have grip.
“So let’s try and it’s good that we’re quick because you can compare and see why.”
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Vinales’ media briefing on Friday was canceled, allegedly because he had a long technical briefing after training.
His reaction to his problems this season has been in stark contrast to his team-mate, but Vinales doesn’t feel like he needs to be calmer considering what he’s been doing this season since his dominant win in Qatar on the championship opening night in March has gone through.
“No, that’s enough, I can’t wait for the races anymore,” he added. “It’s enough to have five or six races in a row with very bad results.
“And what is particularly tough for me is usually that, even if I don’t have good grip conditions, I was able to drive a lap and be in front, but not even for a lap in the last few races.
“I crashed once per race, where I may never have crashed in a season.
“So maybe it’s an indicator of how far we are from our goal. But I can’t be calmer. ”