Fabio Quartararo reacts to MotoGP marshal penalty: ‘I didn’t do anything stupid’
Fabio Quartararo has been penalised for ignoring marshals
Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo says his actions which led to a penalty for ignoring marshals at the French Grand Prix were “not stupid” but “understands” the punishment.
Fabio Quartararo crashed out of the French GP early in the rain-hit race while fighting for the podium places.
He was later given a penalty for ignoring instructions from the marshals to leave his bike, with the Yamaha rider now forced to sit out the opening 10 minutes of FP1 on Friday at the British Grand Prix.
On Thursday at Silverstone, Quartararo accepts he shouldn’t have gotten as angry as he did when trying to rejoin the race at Le Mans.
But also believes the stewards need to take into account in these scenarios that the marshals were not all doing the same thing in that incident.
“It’s not stupid what I did, because everyone has done it in the past and no one was penalised,” he said.
“They call you as a warning, but I was the first one to be called [for a penalty].
“‘Ok, everyone is doing it so you will be the first one to be penalised’. I can understand, though I am the first one always to be penalised.
“But I can understand the reaction from the marshals.
“My bike was in good condition. But they called me into race direction because I insisted a lot.
“But I said that if they pushed me well I would have restarted the bike.
“It would have been no discussion. But the marshals didn’t push me.
“One was pushing, one was holding, one was pushing, one was holding.
“You cannot restart a MotoGP bike if you are not pushing strongly.
“If you want to penalise me, it’s ok, I can understand. But you need to also understand what the marshals are doing.
“It was my fault to get angry and not want to put the bike on the side, but we need to understand that the marshals have some responsibility to push me strong - not one holding and one pushing.
“That’s what they have to understand on the screen, where we can clearly see they were not pushing.”
Quartararo was also given a €2000 fine for the incident, but no other supplementary punishment beyond his 10-minute delay to FP1 at the British GP.
