Maverick Vinales has pulled out of the next two MotoGP rounds as he continues to grapple with the shoulder injury that has wrecked the second half of his 2025 season.
He has been a struggling, on-off presence in the field since the high-side in German Grand Prix qualifying in July that dislocated and fractured his left shoulder, either missing races, having to withdraw mid-weekend or riding off the pace since then.
Vinales did manage to contest the full Barcelona, Misano and Motegi weekends but 17th on the Misano grid and 13th in the Catalan GP were as good as those rounds got for him.
Vinales is the third MotoGP regular confirmed as a Phillip Island absentee, alongside Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin following their recent injuries, while Ai Ogura is also in an ongoing fitness battle after his Misano crash last month and has pulled out of multiple races since then.
After pulling out of last weekend’s Indonesian GP ahead of qualifying, Vinales admitted he was at a crunch point where it might be better to just stop riding until he had properly recovered.
He felt he was losing a second to his KTM team-mates across just five corners at Mandalika purely down to the lack of strength in his shoulder through fast changes of direction.
“We will talk with the team about what is best to do - whether to stop and come back when I’m fully fit or to keep going like this,” said Vinales after Mandalika practice.
“But I think to keep going like this is very hard for me because I have pain and I am losing a lot of feedback from the bike.
“So we must be very smart and see what is the best way to recover faster. I’m not improving now.”
KTM test rider Pol Espargaro will again step onto the Tech3 bike in Vinales’ place for Phillip Island and Sepang.
Espargaro was very competitive in his previous stand-in rides at Brno and Balaton, finishing all four races in the top 10 and reaching Q2 at Balaton.
After the Australia/Malaysia double-header, MotoGP has a two-week break before its final pair of races at Portimao and Valencia followed by the post-race test that effectively kicks off the 2026 season. Skipping the next two rounds gives Vinales nearly another month to recover before Portugal.
