You are here

MotoGP, Vinales describes what it’s like to jump off a bike at 220 km/h

"It was like the brakes exploded and I had no choice. The two races in Austria were the worst of my entire career."

MotoGP: Vinales describes what it’s like to jump off a bike at 220 km/h

Share


Last week he had a close encounter with the bikes of Zarco and Morbidelli, today he found himself without brakes at more than 200 km/h. As a result, it’s no wonder that Vinales declared: “We have to forget these two races in Austria, for sure it’s the worst two races I’ve been in MotoGP”. Maverick showed his coolness today when he leapt off his bike at 220 km/h. He got up without a scratch, just in time to see his Yamaha crash into the air-fence and catch fire.

“It all happened very quickly, but I was not afraid - said the Spaniard - Fortunately, the escape routes in the circuits are wide enough to give you time to react when something happens. If anything, I feel anger and frustration for not having achieved the maximum ".

What happened at that moment?

“I had a good start, the bike was fantastic and I was behind Dovizioso, but I couldn't overtake him because his top speed was much higher than mine. I decided to wait and pick up the pace. However, at a certain point, the front pressure of the brake started to drop ”.

What did you do?

“I made three laps very slow, then I pushed again but was again without brakes and Quartararo, Valentino and Petrucci overtook me. Then Quartararo, Rossi and Petrucci overtook me. Suddenly the brake was good, I was recovering a lot to Valentino and Fabio, and then suddenly in corner one the brake exploded, so it wasn’t possible to do nothing.”

Have you had similar problems before?

“It’s something I never had during all my MotoGP career. Maybe the brake would go down a little bit, I’d play with the lever, but today every lap I was adjusting the lever corner by corner. I think the part went away, on the brake. I remained without brakes – the first intention was to get off the bike, because I couldn’t stop the bike, impossible.”

Wouldn't it have been better to stop before with those problems?

“Maybe, but I wanted to continue, even getting just one point would have been important”.

You said you were angry…

“These two races were the worst of my entire career in MotoGP, I deserved better. Without power, unfortunately, you can’t do much. I want to think positively, I'm happy with the set-up, the bike worked well, and now there will be better tracks for us. I know I'm giving 100%, but as you have seen all the Yamahas that have been struggling year, it's difficult to compete like this ”.

Aren’t you thinking about the championship?

“In the last 3 races I have had 3 problems, we have to forget about the championship. Our rivals are faster than us, it's also true that things can change a lot from one track to another, so we need to stay focused. We lost three good opportunities to get back points on Quartararo, who was in trouble. We could have been ahead of him in the standings ”.

What are you missing?

“We have to recover in other points what we lose on the straight, brake later than all the others. If you can’t be in front of everyone then the problems begin because others easily overtake us and we are not able to respond. Today I overtook Dovi, I was happy, but he got back in front of me immediately and there was nothing more I could do ".

 

Related articles