More On Maverick Vinales Getting Suspended
By now you have heard that Yamaha pulled Maverick's entry to the second round at the Red Bull Ring for "unexplained irregular operation of the motorcycle by the rider during last weekend’s Styria MotoGP race", according to a press release issued by the team. The press release went on to say that after analyzing the telemetry data Maverick was riding in a manner that "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." "Well, shit... Where have I heard that before", I thought as I sipped my morning coffee.
Then it hit me.
"You done it deliberate, done it deliberate. Nine thousand, four hundred RPM, according to the little tell-tale button." -Harry Hogge, 'Days Of Thunder'.
After stalling on the grid and starting from pit lane at the Styrian GP, Vinales dropped his Top Gun persona and went all Days of Thunder on his team, proving my theory that he is a Tom Cruise fanboy.
While his YZR-M1 doesn't have a "little tell-tale button", it does have the aforementioned fancy-pants telemetry data that the team has "analyzed over the past few days", causing them to make this decision.
There are no plans to replace Cole Trickle-Vinales for this weekend, and his fate for the rest of the season will be decided after "a more detailed analysis of the situation and further discussions between Yamaha and the rider." Here's to hoping they find him a good set of matched tires in time for Silverstone.