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# What's resting on Vinales' latest - and final - MotoGP return
- URL: https://www.the-race.com/motogp/what-is-resting-on-maverick-vinales-latest-final-motogp-return/
- Published: 2026-09-28T16:31:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-28T16:31:59.000Z
- Description: Maverick Vinales will return to the MotoGP field for the Japanese GP after the latest of his string of absences dating back nearly 15 months
- Author: Matt Beer
- Tags: MotoGP, #ktm, #maverick-vinales, #secondary_feature_3

Maverick Vinales will return to the MotoGP field for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi after the latest of his string of absences dating back to the original shoulder injury he suffered nearly 15 months ago.

It's a comeback he was at one point thought unlikely to actually make - though Vinales fiercely denied reports that KTM was trying to get him out of its line-up early while he was sidelined.

And whether it'll be a successful or particularly worthwhile comeback remains extremely uncertain given the saga of Vinales' time at KTM and the fact he's about to lose his place on the MotoGP grid.

"I’m really happy to finally say that I’m coming back to racing," said Vinales.

"The last few months have been a long process, and I’ve worked hard every day to get to this point.

"I’m not at 100% yet, but I’m on the right path and I feel ready to take this next step.

"Motegi will be about building things up step by step, understanding where I am physically and getting my feeling back on the bike."

Vinales initially sustained his shoulder injury during the 2025 German GP weekend.

Ever since then he has been repeatedly on and off the grid, through a combination of returning before he was ready, further complications resulting from a screw in his shoulder coming loose, and most recently muscle damage limiting the rotation in his left arm.

And whenever he was in the field, his performances were a far cry from the bright start he made to life at KTM in the first part of last year.

And typically given Vinales' eventful career, it all became far most emotive and complicated than your average injury and recovery tale.

Once it became clear this summer that KTM had cooled on its initial plan of promoting him from Tech3 to the factory team for 2027, and that actually there might not be a place on the grid for him at all, Vinales didn't hold back.

"In the end if I'm not in the world championship, it'll be because of one party - and that's KTM - not because of anyone else," Vinales told Spanish media at the Dutch GP in June.

But the frustration went both ways. Tech3 team principal Guenther Steiner lost patience with Vinales simultaneously insisting he was fit enough to race but then using his ongoing recovery as a reason for poor performance.

"This is my frustrating thing," Steiner admitted to The Race during the summer. "I said it last year, I said it this year - first you need to be fit.

"You can't say, 'Oh, I'm fit but I'm not performing because I'm not fit'. You have to pick your battles. It's one or the other. 'Oh I'm fit.' So why isn't the performance there like when you were fit? 'Oh because I'm not fit.' This is a contradiction.

"To show your performance you need to be fit. You need to be 100% fit to ride one of these machines, and I think coming back early doesn't make you quicker. It doesn't heal you.

"I think you can't be too hard on KTM in this moment - or at least, he shouldn't be."

So when reports emerged that KTM might be trying to eject Vinales with immediate effect around the time of the British GP in August, it seemed neither surprising nor especially illogical, this relationship looking like it was already beyond saving.

The reports turned out to be inaccurate. But as Vinales returns to the grid once again admitting he's not "100%" yet, will Vinales, Tech3 and KTM end up all wishing they found a way to call it quits mid-season?

Or will this frustrating enigmatic, yet on his day so incredibly fast, racer actually sign off from MotoGP, KTM and Tech3 with a few more of the startling performances that he's always actually been capable of?