‘Luckily, I’m OK’: Vinales leaps off runaway bike at 210km/hr

SPIELBERG, Austria : MotoGP star Maverick Vinales was forced to leap off his Yamaha bike at 210km/h ( 130mph) in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix after its brakes failed, leaving the Spaniard to coolly declare: “Luckily, I’m OK.”

Vinales was forced to bail with 12 laps to go at Spielberg before his machine then ploughed into the air-fence and burst into flames.

Despite the drama, Vinales walked away unharmed.

“Today’s crash was amazing. I never had that feeling before, where I completely lose the brakes and have to jump off,” said the 25-year-old.

“I understand how it happened, the brakes overheated, but for sure it’s not a common problem.

“Luckily, I’m okay. This is the most important thing. I will be 100% fit again (for the next race) in Misano.”

The incident brought out the red flags with the race eventually restarting over 12 laps and won by Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira on a KTM Tech-3.

Vinales’s daredevil high-speed escape came just seven days after he and teammate Valentino Rossi narrowly avoided serious injury when two rogue bikes crossed their paths at around 300km/h at the same circuit.

“Fortunately, Maverick was able to jump off the bike in time, it was a very scary moment,” said Rossi, who finished ninth.

“In these last two weekends we were on the limit with the brakes.”