Vinales relieved by engine failure analysis: "Luckily the engine broke"

The news came as a relief for the Spaniard, who struggled throughout the Sachsenring event.

However, Vinales admits he and Aprilia must try and identify such issues, which he believes were costing him 6-7 tenths per lap, much sooner in future.

The difficulty in diagnosing the problem was that the engine functioned as normal under acceleration but was suffering an unspecified issue related to engine braking.

“I think in Sachsenring we've been very lucky in a certain way because we broke the engine and after we did a deep analysis of the engine, we understand that there was a problem,” Vinales explained.

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“I ran all the weekend with engine problems and for us it was very weird that in Sachsenring we weren't close enough. Because normally our potential there was very high.

“So we didn't understand it very well but it's good that we arrive in Assen at least knowing this, so we can do a good job here.”

The Spaniard, who took his first Aprilia podium at Assen last season, added:

“I could not feel anything [wrong] on the bike. But analysing the data, the bike wasn't braking enough, I was always struggling all weekend with the front, which I am usually very strong with the front.

“We were using a lot of engine brake but my feeling was still I have pushing… in the end, luckily the engine broke and we understand it well!”

Asked how much time the problem was costing him, Vinales replied: “I think at least 6-7 tenths for sure. And 6-7 tenths here [in MotoGP] puts you in the top 4-5.

“So [in the future] we, or at least myself on the bike, need to understand these things quicker. But it's not easy to understand that the engine is not going correct. It's difficult because it had everything [normal] on throttle connection.

“The connection was good, power was good. It was everything on engine brake. So I didn't understand if it was the track, if it was the bike, it was complicated.”

The official MotoGP engine list states that Vinales took to the Sachsenring track with the problematic engine (first used in the Portimao season opener) during P1, P2, FP3, the sprint, warm-up and finally the grand prix, where it failed on lap 8 of 30.

Without the engine problem, Vinales feels he could have beaten at least some of the Ducatis, which filled eight of the top nine places.

“I was able to do top 6 in Sachsenring, even with the lap times of last year,” he said. “This year’s bike is a bit better and I understand better the bike. So at the end for me it’s not that they [Ducati] made a step forward, it’s that we make a step backwards compared to where we were. In this case, because of the engine.

“We weren't able to take out the maximum, otherwise we will be there - not maybe with Pecco and Martin because they were very fast. But maybe in the second group.

“So we need to be calm. We have a good bike and we need to keep pushing with that.”

Team-mate Aleix Espargaro dropped to 16th place after a soft tyre gamble backfired, but was also very strong at Assen last season, fighting through the field after an early collision with Fabio Quartararo.