Styrian MotoGP, Austria: Stall, dashboard spam, bike gremlins taunt Vinales

Maverick Vinales made one of his best MotoGP getaways at the Styrian MotoGP but stalled before the sighting lap in the restart. More technical misery would follow...
Maverick Vinales, Styria MotoGP race, 8 August 2021
Maverick Vinales, Styria MotoGP race, 8 August 2021
© Gold and Goose

After seeing so many races ruined by bad starts, Mave💟rick Vinales finally got a strong getaway to climb from ninth to sixth in the Styrian MotoGP.

"I think it's the first start I jumped maybe two rows off the line, so it was good!💦 For that I'm happy," Vinales said.

The Monster Y༒amaha rider continued his rise to reach fifth by l♑ap 3, when the race was stopped due to a fiery accident for Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori.

And that was when Vinales' problems began.

The team changed his clutch for the restart, but his bike then stalled betwe🌜en the sighting and warm-up lap meaning he had to start from the end of pit lane.

"They changed the clutch because they were afraid of last year after the restart, when the clutch was very hot and slipping," explained Vinales, who also suffered a race-stopping brake failure at the circui😼t one year ago.

"I went to the box, they changed the clutch, they changed the tyre and everything was different. I just released the clutch and 💎the bike stopped. Really strange. I don't know why. I did exactly the same at the previous start."

But that was just the beginning of Vinales' woes.

Joining a distant last, his bike ⛎was stuttering under acceleration while his dashboard continued 🍸showing a confusing 'pit lane' message.

Then he got a long-lap penalty for exceeding track limits, the warnin🦹g and penalty not showing on the faulty dash, and eventually decided to obey the persistent 'pit lane' command and pulled into the p🔯its as he finished 19th and last.

"I had a few problems on the bike. I don't know why, but nearly all the laps I had 'pit lane' [show𝓡ing on the dash]," he said.

"[Then], the same thing happened as in the qualifying. I don't know why but when I opened the gas, the bike was making failing, like ℱ"boh-boh-boh-boh" [stuttering sounds].

"So I 🐎thought I had some kind of problem, but I kept running and running and running and it was OK, but in the last laps it kept doing it more.

"Also it was very strange, because I didn't receive the track limits warnin👍g or Long Lap [penalty message on the dash]. I did it because I saw it on the main straight [pit board]. If not, I wouldn't do it.

"Maybe when I 💖saw 'pit lane' it was actually track limits. I don't know. But on my dashboard all the time was 'pit lane', 'pit lane'. Every lap. That's why at the end I stopped. Because I don't know, maybe I am losing oil or something?"

Vinales, sixth in the wꦉorld championship, is still to announce his 2022 destination after seeking an early split from Yamaha but it is rumoured the switch to Aprilia could be officially confirmed in the next few days.

Team-mate and title leader Fabio Q🎀uartararo went on to finish third.

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