Vinales: “Amazing” Aprilia victory, but is he MotoGP's first winner on three different bikes?

Maverick Vinales halted Ducati’s 19 race run of consecutive MotoGP victories and, although the record books won’t agree, became the first rider to ‘win’ on three different brands of four-stroke bike in Saturday’s Portimao Sprint.

Despite being at the tail end of the top ten in Qatar and struggling with gastroenteritis at Portimao, Vinales finally found the feeling he had been missing throughout winter testing on the revised 2024 Aprilia.

Qualifying behind only Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, Vinales snatched the holeshot, only to be swiftly shuffled back to fourth.

But the Spaniard responded, re-passing the Ducatis of Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez. That put Vinales behind only race leader Francesco Bagnaia, who suddenly speared wide at Turn 1 after a braking mistake with four laps to go.

Vinales still had Sprint specialist Martin climbing all over his rear wheel but kept calm and when the reigning title runner-up ran wide, took the chequered flag in P1 for the first time since Qatar 2021 (with Yamaha).

“It’s been a long time!” Vinales said. “Today, was tough. A lot of battles. But that’s a Sprint race.

“Of course I'm really happy because I closed this circle, finally. It's a big, big relief and I'm really happy to show the confidence and the big potential we have.

“What I see as the difference, especially from Qatar to here, is that I can really brake well and I can push the front tyre. So I can be much more competitive everywhere on the track.

“In Qatar, I was not pushing the tyres in the correct way. And it's a big difference because I can ride better, more sharp and especially I can brake very late, which is one of my qualities. And then pick up the bike very fast. All of that makes that the tyre life longer.

“The Sprint was pretty fast today [3 sec faster than last year]. But the rear tyre didn't go down so I could push.

“Pecco in the beginning was very fast, he took one second away in just two laps. And then I was catching little by little. But he was riding well. So when I see the mistake, I say, ‘OK, if I keep riding like this, it's gonna be tough for the guys behind to overtake me’.

“At the end, it's amazing to do my first victory with Aprilia. It's crazy.”

It may not count as a ‘MotoGP win’ in the record books but, after watching team-mate Aleix Espargaro celebrate three GP wins and a Sprint triumph, it was the first time Vinales has won since joining Aprilia midway through 2021.

“We race harder in the sprint than the [GP] race!” Vinales said.

“Normally in the sprint is where I struggle the most, so to make a victory in the sprint is amazing. I'm curious for tomorrow because of course, to make a victory depends on a lot of things. But we have the opportunity to do it and that's fantastic.”

But can he beat Jack Miller and Alex Rins to the honour of first rider to officially win on three different brands of bike in tomorrow's grand prix?

“In my head I already did! But of course, I'm really hungry for that for [GP] victory, and I think the team too. If it's not here, it will be in another track.

“Now I just really want to go to the box, try to improve a few things and be ready for tomorrow because it's going to be a long race. I think the rear tyre will be very crucial, so we need to really understand what we need for the long race.”

Vinales took his first MotoGP victory with Suzuki before eight further wins for Yamaha.

Team-mate Espargaro finished as the next best Aprilia in eighth place, from 13th on the grid.