Video footage has emerged of Maverick Vinales seemingly deliberately over-revving the engine of his Yamaha M1 on the cool down lap of the Styrian MotoGP, an offence that looks likely to have cost him his ride for at least this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP.
Today [Thursday] saw Yamaha drop the bombshell that Vinales has been suspended by his own team for ‘unexplained behaviour on a motorcycle’, which it says led to ‘significant damage of the engine’.
Though Yamaha has remained tight-lipped on media day ahead of the second of this weekend’s back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring, speculation has been rife as to what specific offence the Iwata manufacturer is referring to.
However, the consensus from insiders was that Vinales had over-revved the engine, thus causing damage that would necessitate a replacement, a potentially costly act due to the caps on permitted engine use.
Now video has emerged - posted onto the official MotoGP.com website you can VIEW HERE * - that would support this theory.
In it Vinales is seen and heard hitting the rev limiter hard in a low gear on the run into the pit lane. He does this three times, with the engine sounding particularly strained on the pit lane limiter as he pulls in.
It came after he was overtaken by Cal Crutchlow with five laps of the race to go, leaving him last of all. He then posted lap times around five seconds off the pace for each of those final laps and is visibly frustrated as he enters the pit lane.
Vinales himself is yet to comment on the suspension and is not present in Austria and though the suspension is only in place for this race, it is anticipated that the two parties - who have already agreed mutually to part ways at the end of 2021, a year ahead of schedule - won’t see out the season together.
* You will need a login to watch the video on MotoGP.com
