Luca Marini: “Raul hit me” in unseen Mugello MotoGP incident

Luca Marini quickly erased a three-place grid penalty by charging from 19th to 12th in the opening laps of his home Mugello MotoGP.

However, the factory Honda rider's progress was undone when contact with Raul Fernandez, recovering from an earlier mistake at Turn 1, dropped the Italian back to 15th.

The incident was not shown on the world feed, but Fernandez was handed a one-place post-race penalty for forcing Marini wide.

Marini eventually recovered to finish 13th.

"Raul put me into the gravel"

“I had an amazing start, amazing first corners and recovered a lot,” Marini said.

“I was around 12th, so did a fantastic start of race.

“And then lap 4, Raul hit me in Turn 10, put me into the gravel.

“I lost many positions. And then I pushed a lot to come back on Moreira and Mir, but I finished the right side of the front tyre.

“It's a big pity because I was really in a good position after the first two or three laps.”

The official penalty notice for Fernandez, who was demoted from eighth to ninth on the final results, stated: “Causing contact with another rider when overtaking and gaining unfair advantage through it.”

MotoGP penalties are given for the action itself, and not on an ‘eye for an eye’ basis, in terms of equivalent places lost.

Reflecting on the penalty decision, Marini pointed to the lack of live television footage compared to his own final practice infringement, which earned him the grid penalty.

“There were images of myself going into [pit lane], and Martin made the show [with his hand], so I get the penalty,” he said.

“If there were no images because the cameras were following another rider, I wouldn’t.

“But I know it's impossible to see everything.”