The main grandstand of Spielberg in picture-perfect weather – this picture is deceptive in two ways, because the MotoGP race became one of the most chaotic in history due to rain, and it is now unfortunately clear that the event in Styria has become a so-called Covid cluster.

Spielberg became the Covid-19 cluster event and Maverick at Aprilia

For some comments before the MotoGP double race on the subject of Austria and the risk of Covid-19, we even received hater comments from anonymous readers. Unfortunately, it now shows in the most unpleasant way how correct this cautious assessment of our authors was. Everyone (with a still functioning brain at least) should slowly begin to wake up, even if they didn’t want to read and hear what experts have been making clear for over a year. As it has now been leaked, at least one person was infected with the virus despite a negative test and was walking around the site among countless people on the first Grand Prix weekend, of course without a mask to protect himself and above all for others. It should also be borne in mind that this is the first known case, and it cannot be ruled out that more will follow.

Valentino Rossi says goodbye to his fans after his last appearance in Spielberg – it is to be hoped that the number of those who have captured an unloved souvenir among all the other people do not grow immeasurably.

When a country does not want to learn from its mistakes and others pay the price for it
After Ischgl, Austria is again negative in the headlines worldwide, and this is absolutely not without good reason. The initially healthy according to the test turned out to be infected within a week, and the number of infected people can be in the hundreds. There was an apt example of this recently at a celebration in Croatia, after which over 300 people who had travelled home to the Alpine republic were found to be infected. Unfortunately, if a country like the Alpine republic does not want to learn from its mistakes, others pay the price. How the infected person is doing has not been published, but it is certain that thousands of visitors will now be very uncomfortable. It is well known that people who have recovered and were also vaccinated afterwards got an infection and unfortunately these were not just a few, but the number of such cases (vaccinated and infected) is already over 10,000. Hopefully at some point the last person will understand that the 3G rule is anything but secure protection.

With officially fewer than 90,000 spectators at the Austrian GP, the figures from the time before the corona pandemic were not even half achieved, which was also thanks to the steep admission prices. Numerous grandstands were anything but sold out, even at start-finish.

Maverick Viñales confirmed at Aprilia for 2022

The new bad boy of MotoGP had to take an involuntary pause on the weekend before the publication of this long-awaited confirmation. Now, just like five years ago in the Suzuki works team, the Catalan will again be a team-mate of Aleix Espargaró. Whether he will be allowed to compete for Yamaha again this season has not yet been announced by the Monster Energy Team after his dispensation before the second run in Austria. The only thing that is certain at the moment is that, after Suzuki from 2015 to 2016 and then Yamaha, things will now continue at Aprilia. Opinions have been divided on Maverick Viñales not only since his questionable behaviour at the Styrian GP, ​​when he apparently tried wilfully several times to overturn his Yamaha. The controversy for him goes back to 2012, when he refused to compete in Sepang for his team in Moto3 despite still having title chances. Since he has been racing in MotoGP, he has been considered a lucky bag because with the Spaniard anything is possible at any time, from victory to complete failure. Next year he still has to prove whether he will be good for podium places at Aprilia. Until then, we refrain from speculating and wait to see how it turns out.

Maverick Viñales as a spectator on the second weekend in Spielberg – the man from Figueres near the French border has been the new bad boy of MotoGP since Spielberg 1 this year. At the moment, it is still completely questionable whether the seventh in the World Championship will be seen again on the Yamaha M1 this season.

Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© MotoGP).