MotoGP: Aprilia's long term gamble is already showing signs of being vindicated

When Aprilia announced they had extended the contract of Maverick Vinales with their MotoGP factory team until the end of the 2024 season back at the end of May, the move seemed like a very risky one.

Having joined the Italian factory midway through the 2021 season following a high profile falling out with his Yamaha side, Vinales had at that point, struggled to make much of an impression on his new bike.

At the time that new deal with Aprilia was announced, Vinales had managed to finish higher than tenth in just two of the 12 races he had ridden for the team.

That is something that had even seen the Spaniard start to make some rather public expressions of disapproval about his situation in the team, which may well have drawn some worrying parallels with his exit from Yamaha, after a spell with that team that had promised so much, but delivered relatively little.

As a result, with news of that extension for Vinales also coming shortly after news of Suzuki’s withdrawal from the series had thrust two bona fide title contenders, Joan Mir – the 2020 champion – and Alex Rins on to the rider market, the decision to move so quickly to hand Vinales such a long term contract, felt a rather strange.

Now though, little more than a month later, events at the Dutch TT in Assen over the course of the last weekend, suggest that Aprilia may well be set for vindication when it comes to their decision to hand that new deal to Vinales.

While Vinales’ Aprilia teammate Aleix Espargaro fought back heroically after being caught up in title rival Fabio Quartaro’s crash to claim a fourth place in that race that keeps his World championship hopes alive, Vinales himself was producing some serious cause for excitement for the Italian factory.

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