Although they experienced a completely different race at the Sachsenring, Maverick Viñales and Alex Márquez suffered the same abandonment, due to a technical problem with their height variator, the holeshot.
This device, which is installed on the bikes to lower them, helps to avoid wheelies, as well as gives riders more grip on the straights and at the exit of the curves. However, this time, it only brought them trouble.
Often pointed to as an innovation perhaps not so necessary in machines so packed with technology, the front height adjuster will be limited from 2023. The aim seems to be to limit costs, but also the development race, although use will be allowed of the forward at the start, while the rear, for the moment, has not received any prohibition.
It is not the first time that a problem of this type has occurred, which has particularly penalized Viñales, who was having his best race with Aprilia up to that moment. He was in fourth place and with a chance of challenging his teammate Aleix Espargaró for the podium, when he felt his RS-GP begin to react strangely. After two laps trying to disable his rear holeshot to no avail, he was forced to pit with 11 laps to go.
“I was a tenth behind Aleix, I was going to attack and I started noticing that the bike was a little bit low, with chattering [vibrations], and I didn’t understand it. And then, boom, it got stuck. I felt my foot on the ground and I knew something was wrong. I thought I had a flat tyre, but I looked and they were perfect, so I knew it was the device,” explained the Aprilia rider.
“I tried to stay on track but it was really hard. [The holeshot ] got stuck and it never got fixed, I was hopeful, I tried to unlock it because it’s manual but it never came off. I honestly think it was more dangerous to stay on track, [so] I I gave up.”
For now, the cause of the problem is unknown, but the Rosas driver did not show his frustration and “has already forgotten” the withdrawal. After seeing his progress and how he was able to fight with the leading riders, it has been possible to confirm the improvement of Viñales in the race, which has also benefited from a better position on the grid.
The race was less positive for Alex Márquez , who suffered the same problem as Viñales but on the first lap. Unable to deactivate his cruiser, the Honda rider battled for a top 15 finish for six laps before being forced to pit. As in the case of his compatriot, the cause of the problem has not yet been identified.
“I had a technical problem with the rear [height] variator. It stayed down, it was impossible to return it to its normal position and have the bike in its usual position. It was like that from the first corner of the first lap, so it was impossible for me fight. I tried to fix it manually, but it was impossible, so I gave up,” he told the official website of the championship.
“It’s a shame because I think we’ve had a good pace all weekend and as a driver you work a lot over the weekend. But technical problems are something that can happen in a race. happened to us and we have to fix it for the future.
