Cycle News Staff | August 12, 2021
Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales is benched for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix and he will not be replaced.
According to a brief statement released by the team this morning, Vinales’ entry to this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP event has been withdrawn “due to the unexplained irregular operation of the motorcycle by the rider during last weekend’s Styria MotoGP race.”
At last weekend’s Styrian MotoGP, Vinales had a disastrous day, stalling on the restart grid forcing him to enter the race from pitlane. Set to finish in last place for the second time in three races, he instead pulled in with a lap remaining.
At Assen, the Catalan sensationally decided to quit the factory Yamaha team at the close of this year, midway through a two-year contract, with Aprilia being his most likely destination for 2022, according to reports from the Italian media.
Here is the complete statement released by Yamaha:
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Statement:
Yamaha regrets to announce that Maverick Vinales’ entry to this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP event has been withdrawn by the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team.
The absence follows the suspension of the rider by Yamaha due to the unexplained irregular operation of the motorcycle by the rider during last weekend’s Styria MotoGP race.
Yamaha’s decision follows an in-depth analysis of telemetry and data over the last days.
Yamaha’s conclusion is that the rider’s actions could have potentially caused significant damage to the engine of his YZR-M1 bike which could have caused serious risks to the rider himself and possibly posed a danger to all other riders in the MotoGP race.
The rider will not be replaced at the Austrian GP.
Decisions regarding the future races will be taken after a more detailed analysis of the situation and further discussions between Yamaha and the rider.
Update:
Newly-released footage on the MotoGP website shows Vinales revving his Yamaha M1 to the limiter as he enters pitlane on the final lap of the Styrian GP.
Here is what was said on the MotoGP site:
After catching and passing some riders in the opening exchanges, Vinales was then handed a long-lap penalty for exceeding track limits. After the long-lap penalty had been served with 15 laps to go, Vinales wasn’t able to recover the positions he had gained prior to the penalty.
Heading into the closing stages, Cal Crutchlow (Petronas Yamaha SRT) then passed Vinales with four laps to go, with the number 12 going from lapping in the late 1:25s to suddenly posting three full laps that included a 1:30.3, a 1:31.8 and a 1:30.6 – around five seconds off his previous pace.
Then, on the final lap, the onboard images show Vinales causing the bike to hit the rev-limiter on the exit of Turn 8 before he pulled into pitlane, where again he hit the rev-limiter on his YZR-M1 on two occasions. In coming into pitlane on the last lap, Vinales didn’t cross the line to finish the race.
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