Maverick Vinales to attempt riding at Catalan MotoGP despite injury

Tech3 KTM MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales will attempt to compete in this weekend’s Catalan Grand Prix as he continues to recover from a complicated shoulder injury.

The Spaniard crashed heavily during qualifying for July’s German Grand Prix and injured his shoulder, which forced him out of the remainder of that weekend.

He was also ruled out of the Czech Grand Prix the following week to allow himself longer to recover ahead of the second half of the season.

However, the nature of his shoulder injury proved to be more complicated than first thought and doctors outlined a 16-week recovery period.

Maverick Vinales had only recovered for about half of that timeframe when he tried to take part in the Austrian Grand Prix, but had to withdraw after qualifying and was also sidelined for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

He will now attempt to ride this weekend at the Catalan Grand Prix but admits he will be taking his condition session by session.

“We have had two more weeks of recovery since the Austrian GP, which has been a real benefit for us,” he said.

“We have increased the level and intensity of the training, and every day we got stronger and stronger.

“It is important for us to be at the Catalunya GP this week, my home race, because it is going to help us evaluate all the work done recently with all my team and see where we are at.

“We won't be at our 100% this weekend for sure, but the target is to understand our condition on the bike.

“We will have to take the weekend session after session, starting with the feeling on Friday morning, and then we will go from there.

“Either way, I am super excited to meet the team again!”

KTM test rider Pol Espargaro stood in for Vinales at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix and cracked the top 10 in the main race.