SuperBike Magazine September 2020

Analysis and data as Viñales
dodged disaster in Austria
17
Maverick Viñales was once again
fortunate to escape serious injury in
the Red Bull Ring in Austria after his
Yamaha bike’s brakes failed coming
into turn one of the BMW M Grand
Prix of Styria.
The Spanish rider narrowly avoided
disaster thanks to some quick
speed of thought, where he jumped
off his malfunctioning bike seconds
before it went crashing into the safety
fence and burst into flames.
Since the incident, Alpinestars
have broken down
the data of the incident which
thankfully saw the 25-yearold
come out unscathed.
Looking at the information,
we can see that Viñales
was travelling at 218 km/h
when he made the split
second decison to leap from
the bike, as the suits built-in
airbags deployed milliseconds
before initial impact to
protect the Catalan as he hit
the tarmac at well over 20g.
The Monster Energy rider
felt the maximum impact with
the ground just over a second
later, where he registered 23.45g
while sliding along the asphalt. This
was quickly followed by another
heavy impact at just over 20g, as he
continued to slide for another 4.8
seconds before slowing down into a
tumble for 1.9 seconds.
Thanks in large to the airbag
safety technology in the suit, Viñales
was able to immediately get back
to his feet but the same could not
be said for his factory Yamaha, as it
caught alight, causing the race to be
red flagged.
It was the second scary incident in
which the Catalan was involved in in
Austria, as seven days prior he was
lucky to avoid being hit by a flying
motorcycle in the Johann Zarco and
Franco Morbidelli crash.