Maverick Vinales has reflected on a strange ꦇquirk of his tenure with Aprilia in MotoGP, noting that the “second part of the season was very difficult” always for the RS-GP💝.

The Spaniard joined Aprilia in the latter s𝓀tages of the 2021 season following his acrimonious split with Yamaha, and spent three full campaigns with the Italian brand to the🍌 end of 2024.

Vinales achieved his first and only grand prix win on the RS-GP in 2024 at the Americas ♊GP, having also shown strong in the previous round in Portugal.

However, he൲ later admitted that neither he nor Aprilia understands quite why they were so fast at that point of the championship.

Vinales noted that Aꦬmerica wasn’t the only time he felt his best on the Aprilia, but commented that♌ in his years there the RS-GP’s form always slumped in the second half of a year.

“I had a few races where I had a great fe𝓀eling,” he said last m♚onth in Barcelona.

“Le Mans ’23, ju🍬st I crashed. But I💜 think that race could be another win, for sure. And some others where the feeling was really good.

“The bike showed great potential in some parts of the championship, but something I feel that was repetitive in my years in Aprilia was the second part of the season was very difficult for all th🐻e Aprilias.

“So, difficu🧸lt to understand because the tracks are normally good for us. But 💯when you arrive into the second part of the championship, it was always difficult.”

In the first 10 rounds of the 2024, the factory Aprilia squad managed three sprint wins, a grand prix victory and cracked the top five on S𓆉undays four times.

In the last 10 rounds, it managed just two sprint podiums and one top five in a grand prix as it slid to third in tওhe constructors' standings behind KTM - whom Vinales j💞oins in 2025 with the Tech3 team.

Vinales theorises the reason for this was that Aprilia began each season at the bike’s highest level, while i🌸ts rivals came on better l﷽ater in the year.

“I d♛on’t kno🍷w, because we tried everything,” he said when asked what he thought caused this trend.

“We changed swingarms, chassis, everything to try to understand what was go🌱ing on.

“But mayb♔e the idea that I have is that we started at the maximum and the others were a little bit struggling with the new bike and then they made the next step.”