GRAND PRIX DE STYRIA – Maverick Viñales (Yamaha Factory) should leave the Red Bull Ring relieved. This Sunday, the Spaniard was forced to abandon his machine at very high speed because of a brake problem. A week after having escaped the worst.
A week ago, Maverick Viñales escaped drama, and possibly death, for a few tens of centimeters. This Sunday, the Spanish rider again avoided the worst by throwing himself off his motorcycle at nearly 230km / h in the heart of the Styrian Grand Prix. From the start of the 16th lap, at the end of the pit straight, the Catalan lost his brakes and had no choice but to give up his machine. This decision was the right one: while he did not suffer the slightest injury, his M1 struck the airfence at around 170km / h and instantly caught fire.
Grand Prix of Styria
Brake problem and motorcycle on fire: the spectacular accident in Viñales
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“I quickly realized that the brakes had failed or something, so I decided to jump“, he explained to The Race after this incident, which caused the interruption of the race by red flag. Like Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha Petronas SRT), the official of the tuning fork suffered from recurring braking problems from the start of the event. Until the break: “The brake blew up and by then there was nothing more to do.”
Two huge scares in one week
After making this observation, “Mack” had only a fraction of a second to decide to give up his handlebars, in the heat of the moment. “What else did you want me to do? I couldn’t stay on the motorcycle“, he detailed when justifying his astonishing reaction. A little earlier, he had already had the intelligence to raise his hand to signal to his pursuers that he encountered a technical problem, already linked to the brakes. .
Last week he had raised both arms. But it was a reflex of protecting the head after feeling Johann Zarco’s motorcycle, in distress, brush against his helmet. “We will have to forget these two races in Austria, he admitted. These are definitely the two worst races I have participated in in MotoGP.”
Grand Prix of Styria
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Grand Prix of Styria
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