Electrical Failure Reason for Engine Problems for Yamaha Duo at Mugello

Valentino Rossi was at his best when he took the pole position for the Mugello round of the Moto GP. But ultimately, he had to bow out after 15 laps, thanks to a blown engine. The other Yamaha rider and the reigning Moto GP world champion, Jorge Lorenzo also suffered a similar engine failure during warm-up but Yamaha was able to fit a new engine in his motorcycle and he ultimately went to win the Mugello GP.

Yamaha sent the two blown engines to YMC and investigated the cause for the engines to blow up. After analysing the telemetry data and related system and the engine itself, Project Leader for Yamaha YZR M1, Kouji Tsuya said that the engine failure was caused by an electronic issue related to the rev-limiter. This ultimately led to the valve and the piston getting damaged. He also added that the reason for the engine failure for both Rossi and Lorenzo was the same. He further clarified that there was no failure in terms of engine components or structure but it was purely and electronics issue. Rossi's engine blew up because of an accidental over-rev in acceleration that occurred while jumping over a crest as he went full-throttle at the end of the straight. Also, Yamaha engineers did not use any special mapping settings for the Mugello GP.

Kouji Tsuya also said that the engine which blew up for Rossi was the freshest of the three that were allocated to him for the race, so there was no reason to tinker with it after Lorenzo's engine blew up during the warm-up session. Also, there was no time for the engineers to isolate and identify the problem in such a short span of time.

The Yamaha engineers have already modified the rev-limiter settings and have devised counter-measures so that the Mugello incident is not repeated. Yamaha says that they have enough engines for both Rossi and Lorenzo to see out the remainder of the season.