“I will explain soon…” - Maverick Vinales breaks silence as MotoGP rivals react

Maverick Vinales has emerged to tell his followers on social media that he will ‘explain’ his side of a story that led to him being benched for this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP.

The Spaniard was sensationally dropped from this weekend’s event after Yamaha accused him of ‘unexplained behaviour’ on his Yamaha during the Styrian MotoGP, which ultimately led to ‘significant damage to the engine’.

Though the exact details of the offence haven’t been made official, it is believed Vinales dropped the M1 into a low gear and revved to the limiter - a damaging action - potentially in frustration at his fortunes during the Red Bull Ring race when he was forced to start from the pit-lane and struggled for pace.

It came after a series of laps in which Vinales’ pace dropped by five seconds per lap having been overtaken by Cal Crutchlow and demoted to last.

While Vinales kept a low profile on Thursday, he popped up on Instagram Stories to say ‘Today from the other side. I will explain the details of what happened as soon as I can’.

In it he can be seen in full Yamaha attire, suggesting he remains an employee of the manufacturer after rumours this incident will ultimately lead to him being axed for the remainder of the season.

Valentino Rossi ‘very sad for the situation’

Inevitably, the incident prompted debate among press and questions towards his rivals in Thursday’s media briefing sessions.

One of those to react was Vinales’ Yamaha team-mate 2017-2020 Valentino Rossi, who says he can see the situation from both sides but concludes they hope they can ‘fix’ it.

"I'm very sad for this situation, from both sides. Because Maverick is my friend, is a good guy, and also Yamaha is always my team from a long time. So I think it's a shame for everything.

"It's a shame for the championship, it's a shame not to have Maverick on the track with the Yamaha and I think they can fix the situation in some way because anyway Maverick is fast, the bike this year is fast, so I hope they can speak and fix the situation and to see Maverick on track from the next race."

Aleix Espargaro - who Vinales is tipped to join at Aprilia in 2022 - was also sorry to see the issues unfold, but urged him to ‘breathe’ and ‘think twice’ before any rash actions.

“Sometimes I've been very angry and had bad reactions when I had problems, but you have to understand that this is a team. When I crash, they don’t blame me, they don’t hit me.

"So when the engine stops sometimes, it's frustrating, but you have to think twice and breathe.

"I'm not saying that what he did is good, but when you are 'hot' anything can happen. But there is a big 'branch' behind us, Maverick with Yamaha or me with Aprilia, so you have to be clever sometimes and think twice."