Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) should have a Spanish passport – in this case he would certainly be treated very differently by various officials from the Spanish-dominated MotoGP. But like Johann Zarco he hardly has a chance and the “rulers” rush over the young French like hyenas.

Quartararo punished twice – it’s enough!

We had already vented our anger on behalf of many of our readers when another track limit orgy loomed after the Moto3 race. Later, however, it was a particularly perfidious variant that the stewards came up with in the subsequent MotoGP race to take away third place from Fabio Quartararo. Although the records proved otherwise, the world championship leader was punished after the race for allegedly taking advantage between turns 1 and 2. Mind you, this is the area marked for long-lap penalties, which the Yamaha Star avoided a fall in Turn 1. He then lined up correctly behind Johann Zarco on the track and behind him came Jack Miller. He had already been clearly behind the young man from Nice, so no advantage over the Australian.

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) at the press conference before the race – the young Frenchman showed an incredible performance in the seventh race of the season when, with the leather suit opening, he removed his chest protector during the race and threw it on the inside of the track, after which he still crossed the finish line in front of Jack Miller. But he hadn’t considered the sneaky stewards in his heroic deed.

Scandalous additional punishment for Fabio Quartararo

We are used to a lot from FIM and its officials. There are countless examples from the past of how they were formally complicit in assault. Without the high-handed race management, Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini would not have had their terrible and fatal accident in Monza. At the 8-hour race in Suzuka, Jonathan Rea would not have crashed while in the lead in 2019 if he had stopped in time due to an oil spill, as would have been absolutely necessary before. It is hard to imagine if the now six-time world champion would have injured himself and possibly missed title number 4 as a result. Originally, even the wrong team was proclaimed the winner in Japan, until someone pointed out the regulations that they had overlooked. Now, after the MotoGP race in Catalonia, the high-handed men added another briquette and punished the French twice.

Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo) was fourth across the finish line and was the first to benefit from the questionable first punishment of Fabio Quartararo, who received a time penalty for no reasonable and understandable reason, which was not plausible on several occasions. Anyone who voluntarily or, as in the case of the French, inevitably drove into the long lap penalty area, definitely did not get any advantage. So it was shown in the records.

After the first disappointment for the World Championship leader, the second followed immediately
Fabio Quartararo gets a few obstacles in his way and if he were a Spaniard, his life would definitely be a lot easier. Johann Zarco also had to experience this first-hand, using the example of his punishment in Brno with the long-lap penalty 2020. At that time, Pol Espargaró had rammed him driving on the ideal line from outside, but the FIM stewards did not punish the Catalan for his mindless action, but the man from Cannes. However, his long-lap miracle in the Czech Republic went down in motorsport history, and he sensationally defended his third position. Now the FIM tramples the rules of fairness one more time. You have to let the wording of the next and additional punishment melt on your tongue in the original:

“For riding without his leather suit correctly fastened and without the required chest protector, World Championship leader Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) has been given a three-second time penalty applied to the results of the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya MotoGP™ race.“

Punishment of the rider for a material defect – is it even more perverse?

It’s no secret that the zipper on Quartararo’s leather suit was defective, and now he’s even supposed to be punished for it. This is a whole new quality of madness, so we just read it on a French portal and there is something undoubtedly true about it. It is currently not known whether the FIM will ensure that a tailor is ready in every second corner, who can take care of the repair of defective leather suits if the driver has to stop at him. As our Indian contact person Ranjid Bambalapitiya (name changed by the editors) assured, a company from his country is ready to take on this task. In addition, it is expected that a depth psychologist will take care of the FIM stewards from the GP of Germany. Joking aside, it’s a drama and after the Mugello tragedy, Grand Prix Sport definitely deserved more encouragement.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati Racing) is one of the beneficiaries of the punishment of his compatriot, but he should definitely not be happy about it, as he is known as an exemplary fair and correct athlete.

The second “result correction” after Jerez
As after the Spanish Grand Prix, there is another result correction by the race management, which unfortunately does not have a really powerful authority over them that can properly tap the fingers of the FIM people. In this respect, teams and drivers are condemned to play balls of this autocratic institution. As a rule, there is no other option than to submit to one’s “fate” and grudgingly accept the sanctions. Many have already forgotten that due to a rule change by the “Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme” at the end of the 1960s, two Japanese manufacturers dropped out of the motorcycle world championship. At Honda, it would be a long time before they came back. It was a deep intervention in the history of racing, and we think it’s getting enough!

Honda 250cc with 6-cylinder in-line engine – technical marvels of this kind were banned by the FIM at the end of the 1960s through a completely arrogant decision made without prior contact with the Japanese works. This was introduced at the urging of European manufacturers, whereupon Honda and Suzuki withdrew from the World Cup with immediate effect after receiving this news. For more about the earlier years of racing, see our ever-growing history.

The new ranking list and its consequences

Instead of being waved off as third, as at the finish, Quartararo was first relocated to P4 and then with a second penalty to position 6. Such punishments are extremely rare for drivers from Spain, which is why Marc Marquez is almost never approached, regardless of what kind of questionable actions he might have thought up beforehand. Fortunately, the questionable double time penalty only has a marginal impact on the interim ranking. Overall, the World Cup leader has now lost 6 points, which of course benefits all the opponents behind him. Below is the “corrected” ranking list and below that the intermediate result in the world championship.

Having seen the chequered flag in third place, Fabio Quartararo was moved back to P4 shortly afterwards and in the evening the second questionable sanction followed, with a definitely hair-raising and almost unbelievable reason.
Before the German Grand Prix, the situation in the world championship is still completely open. Instead of 20 points ahead of his closest rival, Quartararo now only has 14 points over Zarco.

Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© MotoGP).