Joan Mir would certainly have hoped for a better start to her adventure with Honda. The first Sprint race in MotoGP history didn’t last even one lap for the 2020 world champion, who crashed after a contact at turn 13 with Fabio Quartararo. All while his boxmate Marc Marquez started from pole position and finished in third place.
To complete this far from idyllic picture, Race Direction took care of it and, albeit with its usual very long times (the notification arrived when it was after 9.15 pm in Italy), decided to penalize the Majorcan for the maneuver against Quartararo, imposing a long lap penalty to be completed in today’s race.
The episode, which had actually seen him enter rather Garibaldi-style inside the Yamaha rival, as you can see in the video below, had ended up immediately under the scrutiny of the marshals, who had summoned Mir to discuss the incident together.
However, Joan had seemed quite confident that he could get away with it: “From the images you can see clearly, Quartararo tries, as in every corner, to overtake someone, he stays there without passing, he opens up the trajectory a little, I pass him on the inside and when come back I fall. I don’t think it’s Fabio’s fault because he didn’t see me, but it’s not my fault either because I was driving on the line, I didn’t cross the line and I didn’t go against him. I don’t expect a penalty, far from it “.
In the end, however, the college of commissioners decided that his maneuver was a bit too over the top and decided to take action. For its part, Honda tried to appeal the decision, but the Japanese manufacturer’s appeal was rejected. This means that today Mir will start from 13th (he gained a position due to Enea Bastianini’s forfeit), but he will be forced to serve his penalty within the first three laps of the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Joan Mir, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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