Stall, dashboard spam, bike gremlins taunt Vinales

After seeing so many races ruined by bad starts, Maverick Vinales finally got a strong getaway to climb from ninth to sixth in the Styrian MotoGP.

"I think it's the first start I jumped maybe two rows off the line, so it was good! For that I'm happy," Vinales said.

The Monster Yamaha rider continued his rise to reach fifth by lap 3, when the race was stopped due to a fiery accident for Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori.

And that was when Vinales' problems began.

The team changed his clutch for the restart, but his bike then stalled between the sighting and warm-up lap meaning he had to start from the end of pit lane.

"They changed the clutch because they were afraid of last year after the restart, when the clutch was very hot and slipping," explained Vinales, who also suffered a race-stopping brake failure at the circuit one year ago.

"I went to the box, they changed the clutch, they changed the tyre and everything was different. I just released the clutch and the bike stopped. Really strange. I don't know why. I did exactly the same at the previous start."

But that was just the beginning of Vinales' woes.

Joining a distant last, his bike was stuttering under acceleration while his dashboard continued showing a confusing 'pit lane' message.

Then he got a long-lap penalty for exceeding track limits, the warning and penalty not showing on the faulty dash, and eventually decided to obey the persistent 'pit lane' command and pulled into the pits as he finished 19th and last.

"I had a few problems on the bike. I don't know why, but nearly all the laps I had 'pit lane' [showing on the dash]," he said.

"[Then], the same thing happened as in the qualifying. I don't know why but when I opened the gas, the bike was making failing, like "boh-boh-boh-boh" [stuttering sounds].

"So I thought I had some kind of problem, but I kept running and running and running and it was OK, but in the last laps it kept doing it more.

"Also it was very strange, because I didn't receive the track limits warning or Long Lap [penalty message on the dash]. I did it because I saw it on the main straight [pit board]. If not, I wouldn't do it.

"Maybe when I saw 'pit lane' it was actually track limits. I don't know. But on my dashboard all the time was 'pit lane', 'pit lane'. Every lap. That's why at the end I stopped. Because I don't know, maybe I am losing oil or something?"

Vinales, sixth in the world championship, is still to announce his 2022 destination after seeking an early split from Yamaha but it is rumoured the switch to Aprilia could be officially confirmed in the next few days.

Team-mate and title leader Fabio Quartararo went on to finish third.