It seems that Monster Energy Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales has nine lives. The young MotoGP rider encountered yet another horrifying crash at the Styrian GP, just a week after an incident that almost took him and teammate, Valentino Rossi out at the same racing circuit, the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
“I started to lose front brake pressure. I was trying, trying. I went wide one time, I was saying, 'pfft, difficult race',” Viñales told reporters.
In the video, Viñales is seen approaching the curve at more than 200 kilometers per hour. Pulling on the brake lever and noticing they were completely gone he decided to eject from the bike and slide to a stop instead.
“I could not stop the bike, impossible. I understood very well that the brake was broken or something, so I decided to jump.”
Viñales was able to walk away uninjured, but the Yamaha M1 immediately caught fire after it crashed into the air fence just a few hundred meters away. The race was stopped as a result of the incident. It was restarted later.
Red Bull KTM Tech3 team took the Styrian GP victory with rider Miguel Oliveira, while Jack Miller of Pramac Racing and Pol Espargaro of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing took 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
