Maverick Vinales reckons he and Aprilia still have margin to make further gains in MotoGP despite fighting for victory in the British Grand Prix.
Vinales narrowly missed out on a maiden premier class win with Aprilia at Silverstone after chasing down eventual race winner Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati in the closing laps, the nine-time MotoGP race victor passing the Italian at Village on the penultimate tour before Bagnaia swiftly moved back ahead en route to supremacy.
The Spaniard still took the checkered flag a seasons-best second just 0.426s from victory, Vinales’ second-successive rostrum result – though he believes there is still more room for improvement with the RS-GP package as “every time I go on the bike I feel better.”
“I’m very pleased because two podiums with the bike in a row is very important for us, we worked well throughout the weekend and I learned through the race where we have to improve,” explained Vinales.
“I don’t think we’ve hit our roof, we can keep improving and working because every time I go on the bike I feel better and there are various tracks where I now feel strong.
“I’m enjoying everything in terms of work and really enjoying being inside the team, Aprilia is a great factory and they deserve this, so I’ll keep going for it.
“I couldn’t wait to be back to be back to work to try and find the next step.”
Vinales affirmed that he “tried everything” to defeat Bagnaia for victory in the British GP, though conceded his focus turned towards holding off the chasing Jack Miller for the runners-up spot after running wide at Copse on the last circulation.
“I tried everything, I passed him but he passed me back and then at Turn 1 I had a little moment going into the corner so I lost all the gap,” added Vinales.
“At that point I just closed the door for Jack (Miller), but overall we must be happy because MotoGP is not easy and we are achieving really great results with two podiums in a row.
“It’s a dream (to win in Austria) if I can accomplish the objective in Austria it would be incredible because of the things that happened in the past, I am focused on the present and not the past, but it will be a good motivation for sure.”