KTM chapter closed, Vinales sinks at the Sachsenring: the twilight of a champion

Maverick Vinales explained his last-place finish in the MotoGP Sprint in Germany. As for KTM, that chapter is finally closed.

A last position that this time reflects not his physical condition, but difficulties with the bike. Maverick Vinales endured a disastrous MotoGP Sprint at the Sachsenring, finishing eight seconds behind stand-in Cal Crutchlow. What happened? The answer is understeer, a loss of front-end grip that compromised his feeling on the KTM RC16. That wasn’t the only topic touched on today: we can say Vinales also responded to Pit Beirer’s olive branch. “I don’t need to talk to anyone about anything,” he said, as reported by crash.net. “I’ve understood that I’m out of MotoGP; I just want to enjoy the last races after the break.”

As mentioned, Vinales highlighted one particular issue with the RC16. “I feel like I have little front grip, so I can’t turn well,” the Tech3 Spaniard told the British outlet. “The feedback I get is that at any moment I can lose the front. It’s a problem riding like this—I can’t maintain corner speed and, basically, I’m going very slow. I tried a few things but always ended up in the same situation.” He also emphasized that “In corners where I just have to brake and get back on the gas, I’m at the same level as the others.”

The feeling with the KTM progressively worsened as grip increased; Vinales even complained of severe vibrations, to the point where he could barely hold onto the bike. In short, there’s work to be done to try to finish the first part of the 2026 MotoGP season as well as possible, take a break, and restart. The Spaniard is saying goodbye to MotoGP and has closed the chapter with KTM, which, according to the latest rumors, has chosen Luca Marini for Tech3—the experienced rider to be paired with a rookie from Moto2 (names include Manuel Gonzalez or Senna Agius). Vinales’ future is a mystery, but the rider himself doesn’t elaborate. “The only goal is to come back stronger after the break,” he concluded.

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