Viñales suspended by Yamaha after he 'possibly posed a danger to other riders'

MotoGP

August 12th 2021

After finishing last in two of the last three races, Vińales has now been benched by his team for "irregular operation of the motorcycle"

Maverick Viñales's final year with Yamaha has gone from bad to worse after being suspended by the team

Yamaha

Maverick Viñales has been suspended by the Yamaha MotoGP team for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring after he “possibly posed a danger to other riders” in the manner in which he rode his bike.

The team announced that he been left out due to “unexplained irregular operation” of his Yamaha M1 MotoGP bike during the race.

Viñales suffered a torrid time during last week’s race in question, the Styrian GP, also at the Red Bull Ring.

Although he made a promising start to the race up to a red flag, Viñales found himself unable to get away from the grid after stalling on the restart.

His race was then compounded by a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits – the Spaniard ultimately finished last for the second time in three races.

Viñales’s relationship with his Yamaha team has seriously soured over the course of the season, their rider saying he “couldn’t understand” why he had been re-signed for this year, before both parties announced they would be splitting at the end of the year.

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“Yamaha regrets to announce that Maverick Viñales’ entry to this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP event has been withdrawn by the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team,” a statement from the works squad read.

“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 team have said that there will be no replacement for the Spaniard this weekend, and that the decision on him participating in future races will be taken after further analysis.