Fabio Quartararo given unusual penalty for disobeying instructions from marshals
Yamaha rider Quartararo crashed early in French Grand Prix
Fabio Quartararo has been hit with an unusual penalty for the British Grand Prix following his crash in the early stages of Sunday’s MotoGP French GP at Le Mans.
The factory Yamaha rider stunned the home French crowd on Saturday when he stormed to pole position for the second round running.
Fabio Quartararo converted that to a fourth-place finish in the sprint having led it for the first five laps.
In Sunday’s wet flag-to-flag race, Quartararo was one of a number of riders to swap to a dry bike after the warm-up lap and netted a double long lap penalty as a result under new rules.
Leading in the early stages of the 26-lap grand prix, Quartararo was the first to dispense of his penalties and would have been in a strong position to capitalise.
However, he crashed at the final corner on lap four when the rain intensified and was unable to rejoin to head to pitlane for his wet bike.
Quartararo was seen in a disagreement with the marshals before trudging back to the paddock.
The stewards have taken a dim view of this, deeming Quartararo to "behaved in an irresponsible manner, disobeying direct instructions from marshals, causing potential danger to yourself and others".
As a result, he will have to sit out the first 10 minutes of FP1 at the British Grand Prix in two weeks and also pay a €2000 fine.
While this punishment may not seem grand compared to other penalties that could have been handed out, it does come at an awkward time for Yamaha.
It debuted a new engine at the French GP which delivered a small top speed boost to the M1.
Testing this at a place more dependent on power like Silverstone will be a key part of Yamaha’s run programme for practice at the UK venue.
Yamaha is also testing at Misano this week, where updates and set-up ideas trialled there could find their way onto Quartararo’s bikes for practice at Silverstone.
It's not the first time Quartararo has had a penalty hanging over his head coming to a British GP.
In 2022, he faced a long lap penalty following a collision at the previous Dutch GP with Aleix Espargaro.
Commenting on his French GP prior to his visit to the stewards’ office, Quartararo told TNT Sport: “Yeah, I mean I think it was tricky conditions.
“We gave our best but I made a crash in the last corner that I didn’t really expect, but many riders were crashing in this corner and unfortunately it was like that.”
