Yamaha has withdrawn Maverick Vinales from racing in the Austrian MotoGP round for trying to 'blow up' his bike

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Statement:

Yamaha regrets to announce that Maverick Viñales’ entry to this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP event has been withdrawn by the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team.

📰 https://t.co/Q7yUeXOVNq#MonsterYamaha | #MotoGP | #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/zKpmpmOqqR

— Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (@YamahaMotoGP) August 12, 2021

According to the official press release from Yamaha, "Yamaha’s conclusion is that the rider’s actions could have potentially caused significant damage to the engine of his YZR-M1 bike which could have caused serious risks to the rider himself and possibly posed a danger to all other riders in the MotoGP race."

Vinales had a tough week of racing last week after stalling his bike at the start of the race after the red flag incident between Dani Pedrosa (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini). He claimed that the bike was working well before the red flag, but Yamaha tampered with his bike by changing the clutch and electronic settings which caused him to start the race from the pit lane.

According to those who were positioned at the trackside, they've also heard that in the final three laps of the race, Vinales was hitting the rev-limited by not shifting his Yamaha M1 into the sixth gear at the front straight. The telemetry data also indicated a significant decrease in top speed for the final two laps of the race that seemed to confirmed this claim above before Vinales entered the pitlane (and not finishing the race despite being last).

The war between Yamaha and Vinales doesn't seem to end there. The Vinales Racing Team currently handled by Maverick's dad in WorldSSP300 has also released a shocking statement saying that they will no longer compete using the Yamaha YZF-R3 machinery effective immediately. And they've only been together for half a season. Yikes.