A change in weight balance gave 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Maverick Vinales the braﷺking stability he’d🔯 been seeking on the KTM RC16.

After following the likes of Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia during practice at COTA, the new Tech3 rider is now setting his sights on improving the ‘neutral’ phase of cornering as MotoGP heads to round four in Qatar this weekend.

Vinales reached Qualifying 2 for the first t🌼ime this season at COTA and felt he had the potential to fight for a top five.

However, technical issues saw him fail to finish the Sprint and then ride from the pit lane to 14th in the delayed grand prix. Along the way, Vinales set a be🦩st race lap just 0.065s slower than the fastest KTM of team-mate Enea Bastianini.

“I am sure that without the grid issues, Maverick would have ended close to the top 5,” said Tech3 team manager Nicolas Goyon.

ꦫNow Vinales ar🌱rives at a Lusail circuit where he won twice as a Yamaha rider, in 2017 and 2021.

"We are heading to Qatar with a good feeling after the improvement🐼s made last week in Austin,” Vinales said.

“For sure the outcome was not the one we wanted, but I felt fast and competitive all weekend for the first time this season, and all I want to do is g🎀o to Qatar and continue working in that direction.

“Doha is a 𒁏track ꦿthat I like a lot, where I have had good results in the past, so let's try to be competitive straight from Friday, and see how it goes for the weekend.

“It𝓀 is always special to race at night, so I am excited.”

"It is more under control"

KTM is the only m♐anufacturer without a top-five finish in any of the six races so far this🍰 season.

So what w𝓡as the change that helped Vinales find form after a difficulꦺt pre-season?

“We did it in warm-up in Argentina,” Vinales explained. “Basically I was looking to have more rear weightꦦ. Trying to control a little bit better the rear slide when I go into the corner.

“This is very important because I can now hit the lin🔴e🦩s I like.

“You could see on the videos that we always got sideways in braking,♐ but I wantedꦜ to have it so that - even if it goes sideways - it is more under control.

“Then I can hit the apex in a better way, and touch the gas better. It all s🐼tarts from the braking. But still there is room to improve further.”

“The neutral area” for KTM's Maverick Vinales

Wဣith his braking improved, Vinales then got a clearer idea of the next area to focu𓂃s on while following Ducati Lenovo riders Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia during practice at COTA.

“With thisꦓ new setup and weight balance, I feel much more comfortable,” he said.

“And now that I'm faster, I can understanℱd really well wher🍬e we have to improve next.

“I was able to do some laps behind Pecco, some laps behind Marc, and I sawཧ clearly where we are missing and where the bike is good.”

The ten-time MotoGP race winner added: “If we divide the corner into areas - braking, neutral area and gas - I think we are good on gas. The t🧸raction of the bike is quite good. So in this area, we are well set.

“Now, for me, the area we need to improve is the neutral area, when you release the front brake. Th♏ere the bike doesn't turn, so you open [the gas] with more degrees of lean on the exit.

“So I can see very clearly where we have to go.”

Vibration and more ext🙈reme chatter problems have been an issue for all of the KTM🧔s, with the new big ‘salad box’ on the back of the RC16 believed to offer a minor improvement.

“Still we are not 100% on ꦓthe pack𒐪age," said Vinales. But we are seeing the light. So that's nice," said Vinales.