Race direction explains Iannone start line incident

MotoGP race director Mike Webb has called Andrea Iannone "the luckiest rider I've ever seen" after the Italian narrowly avoided receiving a jump-start penalty at Mugello.

TV pictures showed pole-sitter Iannone moving forward ahead of the rest of the front row in Sunday's 23-lap race. However, while Karel Abraham received a ride-through penalty for clearly jumping a substantial advantage ahead before the red lights went out, Iannone avoided a similar sanction.

As Webb said, Iannone's storming start was more down to luck than judgement having got off the line at the exact moment the lights went out.

"We had one genuine jump start today from Abraham," he said. "He was clearly out of his box and kept moving. The other controversy was Iannone, who I've got to say was the luckiest rider I've ever seen. He went at exactly the time the red light went out. He can't have judged that. It was his own dumb luck. As he decided to go the red light went out.

"On our jump start camera, we have cameras on every row at 500 frames per second. On one frame the light's red and he's in his box, in the next frame the light's out and he's on his way. I say luck - it's not just judgement. He was very lucky within that tiny time frame the light happened to go out. The bottom line is if there's clear evidence it's a penalty. If there's any doubt about the evidence I can't give a penalty."

Rules regarding handing out penalties for start-line infractions have changed for 2015. As Webb explained, "The previous rule was if the bike is moving before the red light goes out then it's a jump start. So you can have what you had in the past. The red light is on and he accidentally moves forward some centimetres or milimetres, whatever, by mistake, stops again - so the bike's actually stationary - and then the red light goes out and he starts.

"How we wanted to treat that differently from someone who clearly goes before the red light and keeps going. The rule says now as long as you're not moving when the red light goes out, so if you move accidentally before but stop again and are stationary before the red light goes out that's ok.

"Clearly if someone does this - a false start - stops again but has moved two metres that's an advantage and they get a jump start. But if they've moved a centimetre or two it's not an advantage and they've stopped again. That's what the rule change was about."

Abraham was initially unhappy regarding the incident as he felt he received to advantage from his jump.

"I was a little bit nervous and I jumped the start," said Abraham in his pit box after the race. "I'm a little bit confused and disappointed about race direction. I guess my jump-start was too big so I was last into turn one. I didn't gain any position."

Clearly Webb felt he moved a considerable amount when he jumped off the line.