P140
CN IIIN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
REDEMPTION SONG, OR
HOW MAVERICK CAME BACK AGAIN
claiming his first full-race win
with the Italian marque, and his
first (and career 10th) since the
beginning of 2021.
Aprilia's success must be
encouraging to both Honda and
Yamaha, currently deeply in the
slump zone, with no end cur-
rently in sight.
The rider's redemption, follow-
ing a roller-coaster career, is the
hardest to explain, combining as
it must the obsessive and poten-
tially twisted psychology of a
world-class sportsman with the
borderline craziness essential
for serial bike-racing success.
Maverick, born of gypsy roots
and appropriately from Figueres,
home of super-weird surreal-
ist Salvador Dali, is a complex
character, for whom the chosen
Batman motif is especially apt,
for was Bruce Wayne not some-
T
o make a comeback,
first you must slump.
Something that Maverick
Vinales has made something of
a specialty.
The same, to a lesser extent,
goes for Aprilia, transformed
from early-days grid-filler to
become the only bike to beat
Ducatis in the last 14 GPs. Three
times, and most recently at
COTA, with Maverick Vinales,
Maverick "BatMav"
Vinales was the hero
at COTA, claiming
pole, the lap record,
the Tissot Sprint and
Sunday's GP at COTA.
PHOTO: GOLD & GOOSE
