MotoGP: the videos that prove Maverick Viñales ‘guilty’

On Thursday afternoon, Maverick Viñales left the Red Bull Ring without commenting on Yamaha’s decision to exclude him from the Austrian GP for having caused “significant damage to his bike’s engine” in the final laps of the Styria GP.

While the parties involved keep quiet, video footage of the Spaniard’s action during the final laps has emerged on social media channels.

The videos

 

 

 

 

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One video, published by the MotoGP channel, shows Viñales revving the engine of his Yamaha as he returns to the garage, in the section between turns 8 and 9, which he follows up with more revving once in pitlane.

The brief clip only shows a part of what went on, as more social media footage shows Maverick repeating his behaviour at other points of the track (from turn 1 to 2), which makes for a particular sound, something reporters around the track also picked up on.

The full video (3 minutes and 40 second), is available on the MotoGP YouTube channel by clicking here.

Para los que no pudieron verlo (DAZN habilita los videos para Arg, careta), por esto fue sancionado Maverick Viñales por Yamaha...y déjenme decirles que se ve culpable por todos lados.#MotoGP #Yamaha pic.twitter.com/TTz4d3Gx0I

— El Mejor del Resto (@elmejordelresto) August 13, 2021

What does the stopwatch say

The stopwatch is merciless and shows that, over the final laps, Viñales unexpectedly slowed his pace, lapping roughly five seconds slower than the previous laps, before ending his race ahead of time. His top speeds on lap 25 and 26 were low, 274.1 and 287.2 km/h respectively.

Numbers that, in reference to the Yamaha press release, prove Maverick ‘guilty’.

Translated by Heather Watson

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