Styrian MotoGP 2020: Vinalez Jumped off Because His “Brakes Exploded”
It must’ve been a traumatic fortnight for Maverick Vinalez at the Spielberg Circuit in Austria. Last night’s Styrian MotoGP 2020 say the rider jump off his Monster Energy Yamaha at 230 km/h, after his brakes “exploded.”
He had been struggling with loss of brake pressure since the beginning until the midpoint of the race when he totally lost the front brakes while heading into Turn 1. With no way of stopping the bike and heading straight towards to the outside wall, he made the split decision to abandon ship. His YZR-M1 slammed head on into the air fence. The bike caught fire and burned down the fence, which prompted the marshals to wave the red flag.
Repsol Honda’s Alex Marquez, who had been following Vinalez at the point, noted small objects flying off the latter’s Yamaha as he approached the turn. It was later learned that those were brake parts.
Pitlane announcer Simon Crafar (who was a World Superbike rider himself) revealed that Brembo had issued new cooling ducts to the teams for this race. However, Vinalez was one of the riders who chose not to fit it. Vinalez had said after his last win in 2019 that the team’s resurgence was due to not trying out all sorts of new parts which had previously led to much confusion.
Besides that, the Yamaha riders namely Vinalez, Valentino Rossi and Fabio Quartararo had to brake much later and harder to compensate for the lack of acceleration and top speed at Spielberg.
Thus, two things conspired against Vinalez over the weekend: Overly hard braking and the omission of the new brake ducts.
It was the second lucky call for Vinalez in two weeks. He was almost smashed by Johann Zarco’s flying bike on the prior weekend.
Still, the Spanish rider called “Top Gun” is hopeful and looks forward to better races in the rest of the season.
