MotoGP championship chief Jorge Martin has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix after impeding Raul Fernandez in qualifying.
Pramac Ducati rider Martin certified second on the grid at Assen and stayed there in Saturday’s 13-lap dash, losing out to title rival Francesco Bagnaia.
Quite a lot of riders tripped over one another and aborted laps throughout qualifying, as they both sought tows or appeared to cease being adopted, with Martin amongst these caught up on this.
Video footage reveals him backing off into Flip 1, with simply over three minutes to go, and gesticulating on the site visitors in entrance him earlier than wanting behind him.
Trackhouse Racing’s Fernandez is behind Martin on monitor at this second, however it isn’t clear at what level via Turns 2 and three – the place the FIM stewards have recognized the incident occurred – that the Aprilia rider catches a slowing Martin.
Martin is then seen operating nicely huge round Flip 4, with Fernandez coming beneath him earlier than they make slight contact into Flip 5. The Pramac rider tagged the again of Fernandez as he slowed as much as vent frustration at Martin.
Initially releasing a doc stating that Martin was being punished for an incident in second apply on Friday, the stewards rapidly clarified the offence was in Q2.
Martin will drop from second on the grid to fifth, selling Maverick Vinales to second, Alex Marquez to the entrance row in third and Aleix Espargaro to fourth.
Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The FIM doc learn: “On 29 June 2024 at 11:36.33, in the course of the Qualifying 2 session on the Motul TT Assen, you [Martin] have been noticed to be using sluggish on-line [and] disturbing one other rider – #25 [Fernandez] – at Turns 2-3.
“This contravenes the precise directions given to MotoGP rivals and groups [regarding] disrupting the session, and is taken into account irresponsible using. It’s due to this fact an infringement of Article 1.21.2 of the FIM Grand Prix World Championship rules.
“For the above causes, the FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel has imposed a 3 grid positions penalty for the Motul TT Assen MotoGP race.”
As this was a primary offence for Martin this season, the punishment has been saved lenient.
Martin’s penalty has been issued particularly for the Dutch GP, reasonably than the subsequent grand prix during which he competes – wording that got here into use final yr after the controversy surrounding the altering of language utilized in a punishment given to Marc Marquez in Portugal.
Beneath the present wording of Martin’s penalty, ought to he be unable to take the beginning of the GP on Sunday as a consequence of an damage, he wouldn’t need to serve that grid drop.
On quite a lot of events since that alternate wording got here into use, nonetheless, stewards’ notifications on penalties have been inconsistent as to which line they use.
Martin is now simply 15 factors away from Bagnaia within the championship following the Assen dash race. He defined afterwards that he struggled for front-end assist via Turns 6 and 12 in the course of the 13-lap race.