"I
am a warrior." This was the most
poignant remark in Maverick Vinales'
chastened (you might say "groveling")
apology to Yamaha, banished to the side-
lines of the Austrian GP, after his controver-
sial attempt to blow up his bike the week
before.
He splurged on humble pie, apologizing
about how his emotions got the better of
him, in a difficult afternoon. He'd started
strongly in the race, only for it to be red-
flagged after just three laps. The restart was
one disaster after another. Stalling on the
grid before the warm-up lap meant a back-
of-the-grid start. He'd made up a few places
only then to suffer a long-lap penalty for
straying over track limits: very easily done
at the Red Bull Ring. Back in last place, his
frustration boiled over.
His humble apologies, coming as they
did after the most difficult of seasons so far,
were not enough to save his job at the team
for which he has claimed eight wins in four-
and-a-bit years. Finishing the Styrian GP in
the pits brought to an end to his last ride on
a factory Yamaha.
Another twist in an extraordinary saga.
Extraordinary because of this ex-Moto3
champion and multiple GP winner's wildly
variable results this year—he finished first
at Doha, ran pole-to-second at Assen, but
came plumb last in Germany and Styria.
Extraordinary because of his mid-term
abandonment of his two-year Yamaha
contract. Rather than see it through, he
decided to bail out at the end of this year.
Extraordinary because longtime ally
and crew chief Esteban Garcia (Vinales'
choice, after working with him in Moto3)
had already paid the price, un-ceremonially
dumped earlier this season.
And extraordinary because he can hardly
have expected his intentionally destructive
over-revving and "emotional storm" to pass
unobserved, with all the onboard and on-
screen monitoring.
There is a precedent. In 1993, John
Kocinski was sacked from the Lucky Strike
P120
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
The
Vinales
Affair
