Maverick Viñales is sincere when he admits that the situation he is experiencing is “frustrating for me as a rider and I think it is for the team too.” After the winter tests he was the favourite for the title, then 3 wins at the beginning of the season and then the difficulties. So great that today in Valencia he was not even able to go through to Q2.

“I have no explanations - he admits - What does the telemetry say? That we are in the wrong place; that the settings are wrong. I still have the same problems. The bike doesn’t brake and doesn’t turn and on this track these problems are even bigger.”

Hard to keep motivations high when everything is going wrong.

“I don’t feel like I’m in a black hole. I keep believing, but it’s difficult - the Spaniard continues - I came here wanting a good result to finish the season. I pushed to the limit and I found myself struggling to be 15th.”

There is not much more to add, except to end the hustle and bustle of the year and get ready for next year.

“I hope that everything changes in 2018; this is not the way. Nothing worked today - he confessed - When the bike doesn’t work you can change what you want, but you can’t make up 2 seconds per lap with a setup.”

Something undoubtedly went wrong during the season, but Viñales does not want to point the finger at anyone.

“We are a team and we do things together - he says - I don’t know what happened. When you try a lot of different things, you can lose your way. Now we need to think about next season.”

However, in order not to make the same mistakes, you need to analyse the recent past. So Maverick finds one of his probable mistakes.

“When I decided to change frames, I should have trusted more in my feelings and less in outside opinions” and it is only natural to think that he is referring to Valentino without naming names.