Fabio Quartararo crashed in an attempt to overtake Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia on the fifth lap of the Assen race, colliding with the Spaniard.
The contact forced Aleix to end up in the gravel, causing him to fall from second to fifteenth position. The Aprilia rider lost about 8 “5, before finishing in fourth place after a sensational comeback.
The Yamaha rider, on the other hand, set off again, but crashed again at turn 5 a few laps later, due to a fault in the traction control sensor, caused by the first accident. Crash for which he also criticized the choice of his team to have him continue despite the damaged bike.
The incident was investigated by the stewards and a long lap penalty was imposed in Quartararo for the British Grand Prix in August.
A penalty that has been widely criticized on social media, with Quartararo venting his frustration on Instagram, targeting the inconsistency shown by the commissioners this season.
“Well, a long lap penalty for the next race”, Quartararo began. “Now you can’t try to overtake, because they think you’re too ambitious.”
“Since the beginning of the year some drivers have had ‘race accidents’, but apparently mine was too dangerous. Congratulations to the stewards for the excellent work they are doing. Next time I will not attempt any overtaking to think not to take a penalty “.
This last sanction has rekindled the debate on the consistency of the penalties inflicted by the stewards, after Takaaki Nakagami had avoided a penalty for the carom that had eliminated Alex Rins and Francesco Bagnaia at the first corner of the Barcelona race.
That was considered a race accident, as was the Japanese collision with Alex Rins the week before at Mugello, which again had put the Suzuki rider out of the race.
After the Barcelona incident with Nakagami, Rins was infuriated by what he considered an incompetence on the part of the current panel of sports commissioners.
Furthermore, the pilots have for some time now expressed their concerns about the penalties linked to the track limits that have been assigned in recent years.
Former World Superbike rider Chaz Davies tweeted on Sunday evening that the recent sanctions will only dissuade riders from dueling on the track.
“The MotoGP commissioner panel is doing a great job of dissuading the riders from really fighting in the future,” Davies wrote. “A basic inability to recognize an unfortunate race accident from a blatantly reckless drive.”
Ducati’s Jack Miller also called the long lap penalty he received at Assen for hindering Maverick Vinales in qualifying “bullshit”.
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