Fermin Aldeguer disputes penalty, "I didn't touch" Miguel Oliveira at Czech MotoGP

Fermin Aldeguer was handed a three-second post-race penalty for an aggressive overtake on Miguel Oliveira during Sunday’s Czech Republic MotoGP at Brno.

The clash - which wasn’t shown on the live broadcast - occurred on lap 6, when Aldeguer passed Oliveira for 13th place. The move sent the Pramac Yamaha rider down the order to 18th.

While Aldeguer continued his rise and crossed the finish line in eighth, the FIM MotoGP Stewards deemed his earlier overtake had been an “unfair manoeuvre”, issuing a post-race time penalty equivalent to a long lap.

The official decision stated the incident was judged to be: “An unfair manoeuvre against another rider that didn’t result in a crash but caused an adverse effect (loss of multiple positions).”

Aldeguer was thus demoted to eleventh in the final classification.

Oliveira: Aldeguer “pushed me off”

Oliveira was clear that Aldeguer had been at fault.

“I was already in Turn 7 with my knee down when Fermín came in where there was absolutely no space and pushed me off, causing me to lose four or five positions.

“That basically ruined my race.”

However, the Portuguese rider added that he was already struggling with puzzling tyre issues:

“Even before that, something strange happened with the tyres. I couldn’t get anywhere near the pace I had in warm-up.

“I did a 1’53 in the warm-up, and in the race, I couldn’t go below 1’55. Really strange. There’s definitely something to analyse there.

“As for Fermin, there’s nothing more to say - he got his penalty after the race, so that’s fine.”

Aldeguer: “I didn’t touch him”

Aldeguer, meanwhile, defended his actions and expressed frustration over the delayed communication of his penalty:

“I didn’t feel that the overtake was on the limit. I didn’t touch him. Maybe I went a little bit wide, but it’s a race.

“Now I will go to Race Direction because nobody said anything to me. I just saw on the screen: ‘long lap for irresponsible riding’, and then ‘+3 seconds’.

“If they had told me earlier, I would have done it in the race.”

Brad Binder, Pol Espargaro and Oliveira’s team-mate Jack Miller were promoted one place by Aldeguer’s penalty.