Maverick Vinales concedes that his MotoGP championship tilt is ‘not in my hands’ after slipping to 41 points adrift of standings leader Marc Marquez in the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Yamaha rider struggled all weekend – just as he has done for the entirety of this season in wet conditions – with rear grip, and the issue failed to improve on Sunday.
Qualifying a joint career-worst 14th, Vinales made slow progress through the field and could do no better than ninth, while main championship rivals Andrea Dovizioso and Marquez finished one-two after an sensation battle.
With a 41-point deficit and only 75 available, Vinales admits he will need Dovizioso and Marquez to hit major strife in the final three races if he is to stand any chance of securing a maiden premier class crown.
“41 points is a lot. It’s not in my hands now,” Vinales said of his championship challenge.
“Now I need other circumstances to happen to win this title. But, until the points are done we are going to try and give everything.
“I pushed my best. Honestly, I gave everything, especially in the first laps I was feeling better and I was trying everything.
“But it was a very difficult race, very difficult to ride the bike.
“I was quite close to hitting the ground five or six times. So I said ‘OK, this is the limit.’ The bike didn’t allow for more.”
Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo, who passed Vinales in the latter stages of the 24-lap Motegi race, similarly struggled for grip in the conditions.
The Spaniard – who felt Motegi offered him his best chance yet to secure a debut Ducati win – led in the early laps, but quickly dropped off the pace and found himself on the fringes of the top 10.
He recovered to finish a distant sixth, and blames the high volume of water on the track and an inability to set his Desmosedici up for the conditions for costing him the chance for the victory.
“I can’t be happy with my race, because we had the potential to try and win if there hadn’t been so much water on the track,” he said.
“We weren’t able to find the right setting to be quick in these conditions, and without rear grip it was impossible for me to do anything.
“I gradually succeeded in getting a better feeling with the bike, and I improve my pace and was able to pass Vinales, (Johann) Zarco and Aleix Espargaro.
“In the end we were missing almost a second per lap today, and that’s a pity because this weekend we were always fast.”
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