By the 5th lap I was exhausted": Viñales between slow recovery and an uncertain future — will KTM wait for him?

A complex period for Maverick Vinales, still dealing with physical difficulties. His 2027 in MotoGP is very unclear.

Physical troubles and an uncertain future. No, it’s not Marc Marquez—we’re talking about Maverick Vinales, who continues to go through a rough patch health-wise, which is inevitably weighing heavily on his MotoGP performance. Gunther Steiner has already stated that Tech3 is waiting for him before making a decision for 2027, and KTM seems to be leaning the same way, favoring him over Binder... But neither side can wait forever, especially with a red-hot rider market. Time is running out and, unfortunately, Vinales continues to have major problems, to the point of calling the Italian GP "a survival race, a very intense training session", though he’s hopeful he’ll already be in better shape next weekend at Balaton Park.

"The goal was to finish the race, by lap five I was exhausted." That’s how Maverick Vinales began his comments after the Italian GP just wrapped up. He then added that his difficulties had started even earlier. "Two, three laps at most, and I barely finished the Sprint," he admitted, as reported by Motosan. In short, the KTM Tech3 rider went through an ordeal at Mugello: "I’d do 2–3 laps focusing on breathing, then two pushing hard. There’s not much more to say. But I’m sure I’ll be much better for the Balaton Grand Prix." All he can do now is be patient: "This is what I’m going through, that’s just how it is." So the next few days will be key to better gauging his condition and trying to make further progress.

Also because the future—the revolutionary 2027—is practically tomorrow, yet Maverick Vinales still hasn’t signed anything. "I have no idea," admitted the 2013 Moto3 world champion regarding what’s next. It’s not good news: it’s already June 2026 and everything is moving quickly to be ready for the challenge of the “new” MotoGP... Vinales, however, has one main priority. "The first thing I have to do is recover. I don’t know how long it will take to recover," he admitted. "It’s a very slow process, and racing one weekend after another doesn’t help. But it is what it is. So at Balaton I’ll try to take a step forward."

If you like the content from our news outlet, you can select it as your preferred source by clicking HERE