Vinales: “I tried to hold on until the end” | Aprilia: “We’ve finally seen the true Miguel”

After leading the timesheets on Friday, Maverick Vinales’ German MotoGP qualifying hopes ended in a big highside through the long Turn 10 left-hander.

The factory Aprilia star landed heavily on his back and was slow to stand up, before being helped away by marshals.

Subsequent scans in the Medical Centre fortunately revealed that the ‘blunt trauma’ had not resulted in ‘any fractures or injuries to the ligaments and joints’.

But it was a sore Vinales who took up his seventh place on the Sprint grid, then briefly peaked in fourth place before being passed by Enea Bastianini, Franco Morbidelli and - at the very last corner - Marc Marquez.

"Before the crash, I was pushing to see where the limit was in preparation for the final time attack, and to be honest I wasn't expecting a highside at that point,” Vinales said of his qualifying fall.

“I tried to hold on physically until the end. I'm especially sorry because we had a great opportunity to do well today. We can be at the front tomorrow, the race pace is there. I expect to feel better physically.”

Vinales is the only factory Aprilia rider on track with team-mate Aleix Espargaro already ruled out by injuries from Assen.

However, there was still one RS-GP on the Sprint podium with Trackhouse rider Miguel Oliveira enjoying his best Aprilia performance with a close second place to Jorge Martin.

“Over the past few days, Aprilia has demonstrated immense competitiveness on the Sachsenring,” said technical director Romano Albesiano.

“Going from an extremely fast track like Assen to this one, we expected to have some difficulties which, however, we are not having.

“Unfortunately, Aleix is not on the track and Maverick’s crash certainly affected his position on the grid.

“We are pleased with the Team Trackhouse result, we’ve finally seen the true Miguel. He deserves it, especially after all the injuries from last year.”