Yamaha suspends Viñales for the Austrian GP
We still remember a situation in 2012, through which today’s Yamaha star in Moto3 caused a shake of the head. Before the Malaysian Grand Prix, the 17-year-old had one chance, albeit a small one, of the title in the junior class. With five wins and seven podium places, he was in second place behind Sandro Cortese, 56 points behind the Germans. However, the young Catalan did not take part in the opening training session in Sepang, and cited the reason for his dissatisfaction with his team, which he wanted to leave at the end of the season. Viñales had travelled to Sepang, and blamed the team’s poor performance and refusal to allow him to leave at the end of the year for his early exit. “We will not take part in the race because the team has not kept our agreement,” he said at the time. This time it is his current team, Monster Energy Yamaha, which blew a bomb shortly before the Austrian GP.
Yamaha’s strange justification for suspending the sixth place in the World Championship
According to the official announcement from Monster Energy Yamaha, Viñales will not compete again at the Red Bull Ring due to “unexplained irregular use of the motorcycle at the Styrian GP”. This Yamaha explanation is very general and imprecise, but it allows only one conclusion. When examining his bike and evaluating the data, it must have been found that Maverick must have literally mistreated his Yamaha M1 on the Styria GP weekend with full intent. Another interpretation is not conceivable. Monster Energy Yamaha confirms this with the following additional statement: “Decisions about the future races will be made after a more detailed analysis of the situation and further discussions between Yamaha and the driver”. This even allows for an early release if the Spaniard does not apologize for his behaviour.
Out of the fight for a top result as sixth in the World Championship
When he caused a veritable scandal at Avintia Blusens 9 years ago, the young man from Figueres, near the French border, endangered his future. Nevertheless, he got a chance afterwards, also because his talent was undisputed. On a KTM, he became Moto3 World Champion for another team the following year. Then he went to Moto2 and only a year later to Suzuki as a works’ driver in MotoGP. Thanks to a very strange development of the title fight in the premier class, as in the first Corona year, Maverick is still in sixth intermediate place. But this is likely to change next Sunday at the Austrian GP. At the moment, it has to be expected that he will never sit on a Yamaha M1 again.
The interim World Championship for all classes before the 2nd Spielberg GP
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>GP Austria preview see separate report on this page.
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