Yamaha: Quartararo penalty ‘unforeseen series of events', no 'malicious intent’
Monster Yamaha tꩵeam principal explains why Fabio Quartararo was below the minimum tyre pressure in the Jerᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚez Sprint, costing him a surprise podium.
The opening three rounds of the MotoGP season passed without any tyre pressure penalties, but 𓃲no less than five riders were hit with 8-second post-race sanctions after Saturday’s Jerez Sprint.
The most high-profile was 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Fabio Quartararo, whose penalty cost him a rostrum after charging fro🧔m 23rd to 3rd, aided by a chaotic 15 race accidents.
Th🌃e other low-pressure penalties were for Raul Fernandez (6th), Fabio di Giannantonio (13th), Jack Miller (14th) and Quartararo’s Monster Yamaha team-mate Alex Rins (15th).
Riders are on💞ly required to stay above the minimum 1.8 bar front p🌃ressure for 30% of a Sprint, compared to 60% of the Sunday grand prix laps, so why were so many caught out?
Monster Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli explained that starting so far back on the grid, it was expected th🏅at Quartararo would be running in (hotter) dirty air throughout the 12 laps.
“It's a pity that we got an 8s penalty for running tyre pressure lower than the advised parameters. There was only a very slight difference,” Meregalli said.🙈
“The tyre pressure decision is based on a𝄹 protocol. The fact that Fabio started the Sprint from the penultimate row was also taken into account.
“But Fabio then rode the Sprint with clear space ahead of him - somethꦺing we couldn‘t have expect♊ed starting from P23 - and this lowered the tyre pressure.
"It was ♛an unforeseen series of event🐽s that got us in this position, it was never malicious intent.”
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Trackhouse team m🐟anager Wilco Zeelenberg, whose rider Raul Fernandez was demoted from sixth to twelfth by his penalty, gave a simil⛎ar explanation:
“Unluckily Raul’s tyre pressure was too low in the front - he had no riders in front of him for much of the race and 🦩we didn’t expect that so the tyre cooled.
"Also, the pace was slow due to the track conditions. I think that was the♈ reason for the infringement.”
Jerez was only the second time riders have been under pressure in a Sprint (after Valencia 2023) and underlines the dಞifficulty teams face when looking into a pre-r▨ace 'crystal ball' and calculating starting tyre pressure.
Others were also unh⭕appy th🅘at, despite real-time tyre pressure monitoring, the penalties were announced long after the rostrum ceremony - with Quartararo - had finished.
That also meant KTM wild-card Dani Pedrosa missed celebrating his first top-three since 2017 in front of his home fan🐲s.
Last season saw an official warning given for a first low-pressure offence, but that has been removed for 2024, alongside the introd♉uction of much bigger post-race time penalties.
The penalty for being under pressure in a grand prix is noꦏw 16 seconds.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has൲ seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
