Метка: Dutch GP

Rins to miss Germany MotoGP round, Gardner set to be Yamaha’s replacement

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Yamaha’s Alex Rins is set to miss this weekend’s MotoGP German Grand Prix following a crash at Assen, with former Tech3 rider Remy Gardner set to replace him.

Six-time grand prix winner Rins was thrown from his M1 at the opening corner of last weekend’s Dutch GP and suffered two small fractures in his right hand and one in his left leg.

Rins flew to Madrid for further checks and underwent surgery on his right hand on Monday morning.

The Spaniard had already planned to have a pin removed from the right leg he badly broke last year at the Italian GP, but this was brought forward given the fact he was already having an operation on his hand.

The surgery is thought to have been a success.

Yamaha is yet to make an official announcement, but he will not race this weekend at the German GP and hopes to make a return at the British GP at the start of August.

While Yamaha is not obliged to field a replacement for Rins in Germany as 10 days since the Spaniard was injured has not elapsed, the Japanese marque is set to field a stand-in.

Remy Gardner, KTM Tech3

Remy Gardner, KTM Tech3

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Gardner, who raced for one season in MotoGP in 2022 with Tech3 KTM before being axed, races for Yamaha in World Superbikes.

The Australian – son of 1987 500cc world champion Wayne Gardner – won the 2021 Moto2 title but struggled on the KTM in MotoGP in 2022 and could only manage a best of 11th.

Yamaha has confirmed to Motorsport.com that Gardner is likely to replace Rins in Germany.

Test rider Cal Crutchlow could not be called up for the Sachsenring race as he is still recovering from a right-hand injury that stopped him from making a wildcard appearance at the Italian GP.

Crutchlow is still scheduled to race at the British GP in August and again in September’s San Marino GP at Misano.

The German GP is the last round before the three-week summer break.

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The inverse Marquez trait that helped Bagnaia’s Assen MotoGP domination

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Francesco Bagnaia’s double victory at the Italian Grand Prix topped the MotoGP news cycle for all of about 12 hours before Ducati enacted rider market madness. From the moment Motorsport.com first reported Marc Marquez had been given the nod for the factory team, all discussion has been around the dynamics within the Italian manufacturer surrounding a decision that was always going to rankle the Bagnaia camp.

Bagnaia put up a good front across the Assen round as he brushed away questions asking for his thoughts on this and how his domination of both races must have been a nice ego boost given the preceding discourse over his incoming team-mate. Clearly, though, the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix was a statement from the reigning double world champion.

For the first time in his MotoGP career, Bagnaia topped the opening practice of a weekend. Usually under the radar on Fridays, he set his stall out early, before in the second session setting a new lap record.

He topped final practice on Saturday morning, before taking pole with another new lap record of 1m30.540s – a lap he was so confident in that he bailed into his pits with several minutes left in the Q2 session. He led every lap of the 13-tour sprint to beat Jorge Martin by 2.355s and did the same in the 26-lap grand prix to beat the championship leader by 3.676s.

At no point was Bagnaia anything but impressive at Assen. He took fastest lap in the sprint and set the best lap of the grand prix six times – the latter, a 1m31.866s, coming 12 laps in. It was with the setting of this lap that Bagnaia brought his lead over Martin to over a second for the first time and it would never again shrink below this.

The only ‘blot’ on his copybook came in the 10-minute warm-up session, topped by Fabio Di Giannantonio. But that mattered little as he romped to a third-successive Dutch GP victory – becoming the first rider to do so since Mick Doohan in the late 1990s.

Bagnaia utterly dominated the Dutch GP weekend and was only headed in the inconsequential warm-up

Bagnaia utterly dominated the Dutch GP weekend and was only headed in the inconsequential warm-up

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“It’s a really great moment,” Bagnaia said when asked if he feared mistakes on a weekend in which he was being pegged as the rider to beat. “But also in 2021, last part of the season, 2022 in the middle of the season, last year at the start.

“Many times it happened to me that I was feeling fantastic with the bike. Any moment I think I know perfectly our potential, I know if we work well, we can fight every time for a win and we can have some race weekends like this.

“This is giving me a lot of motivation. When you start a race that everyone says you have to win, for the pace, for what you did all the weekend, a second position is already a loss. In terms of pressure, it’s more, but I didn’t care and I just enjoyed everything. I love this track; I love going fast and with this kind of feeling in this track, it wasn’t a problem. I just enjoyed everything.”

Being fast through right corners is an inverse trait of Marquez’s, whose anti-clockwise strength is famed and will likely put him in the picture for victory at the German GP this weekend on the quirky left-leaning Sachsenring

Clearly, Assen is a circuit that suits Bagnaia and the Ducati. But the question as to why Baganaia was so strong was posed to a number of riders across the weekend. Marquez – who crashed out of the sprint and was demoted to 10th in the GP due to a tyre pressure penalty – noted that the world champion was particularly strong through the fast right-handers.

“He’s flying all the track,” the eight-time world champion said. “I mean, he’s super-fast here. I already see last year and two years ago that he was super-fast, but especially on those fast right corners he is incredibly fast.”

Being fast through right corners is an inverse trait of Marquez’s, whose anti-clockwise strength is famed and will likely put him in the picture for victory at the German GP this weekend on the quirky left-leaning Sachsenring. Looking at the best sector times in Q2, you can see the strength Marquez is talking about.

Sector 1 (Start/finish – exit T5)

1. Martin – 29.828s
2. Bagnaia – 29.871s
3. Vinales – 29.909s

Bagnaia's prowess through fast right-handers was identified by Marquez as one of his biggest strengths, which the sector times support

Bagnaia’s prowess through fast right-handers was identified by Marquez as one of his biggest strengths, which the sector times support

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Sector 2 (Approach to T6 – entry T8)

1. Bagnaia – 13.335s
2. Martin – 13.436s
3. Binder – 13.444s

Sector 3 (T8 – entry T12)

1. Martin – 26.492s
2. Bagnaia – 26.540s
3. A Marquez – 26.540s

Sector 4 (T12 – finish)

1. Bagnaia – 20.794s
2. Martin – 20.885s
3. Vinales – 20.886s

Most of sector one is slow and medium-speed rights, before flicking left through the Turn 5 hairpin. The short sector two is characterised by the ultra-fast fast approach to the Turn 6 right, which sees riders creep over 300km/h (186mph) in sixth gear before rolling off and knocking back a gear, taking the apex at around 250km/h (155.3mph) then flicking it left into Turn 7.

Sector four features two flicks right at full pelt, before heading left and then into a right/left/right chicane to end the lap. Notably, in sectors two and four, Bagnaia led the way.

A factor that kept Pramac’s Martin, he noted, from fighting Bagnaia for victory in both races was his lack of speed through the fast rights of Turn 6 and Turn 12. How the Ducati works Michelin’s 2024 tyres also appears to be something that gave Bagnaia an edge at Assen.

Bagnaia’s domination at Assen has put him just 10 points behind Martin heading to this week’s ninth round of the campaign in Germany. And now seems like the time where the momentum has shifted in the Italian’s favour.

Martin has been the leading man for much of the year so far, but now has Bagnaia closing in

Martin has been the leading man for much of the year so far, but now has Bagnaia closing in

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Winning five of the eight grands prix run so far, Bagnaia wasn’t knocked off the top perch of the podium throughout June’s four races at Mugello and Assen. Of the 284 race laps held in 2024, Bagnaia has led 154 of them; Martin has headed 95, while the next highest is Vinales on 22.

Martin’s points-per-round average sits at 25 after eight rounds, but Bagnaia is now on 24. Since Barcelona, Bagnaia’s average has been 12 PPR with Martin sitting on nine. Since crashing out of the lead of the Barcelona sprint, Bagnaia has bounced back emphatically and has now matched Casey Stoner’s career tally of 23 Ducati grand prix wins.

With all the talk pre-Assen surrounding Bagnaia’s future team-mate, the 2024 Dutch GP was a timely reminder why Ducati locked him down through to the end of 2026 before the season began and why he won’t be so easily pushed over when Marquez arrives in the box.

Recent form suggests it cannot be guaranteed that Marquez will blow Baganaia away when he joins the factory Ducati team in 2025

Recent form suggests it cannot be guaranteed that Marquez will blow Baganaia away when he joins the factory Ducati team in 2025

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

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Alex Marquez signs new two-year deal with Gresini MotoGP team

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Alex Marquez will remain with Gresini Racing until the end of the 2026 MotoGP season after inking a fresh two-year deal.

As revealed by Motorsport.com last week, the younger Marquez will see out the current MotoGP rules era with the satellite Ducati squad after a successful adaptation to the Desmosedici following his previous struggles on the Honda RC213V.

It remains unclear who will partner Marquez at Gresini in 2025, with brother and new-for-2024 team-mate Marc Marquez having been handed a promotion to the factory Ducati outfit beginning next year.

«Staying with Gresini was my main goal,” said Alex Marquez. 

“Since I joined this team, my target has been to consistently get close to the best, and it’s something I haven’t achieved yet. 

“The start of the season wasn’t what we hoped for, but the team is strong and I know where we can go. So, I just want to thank Nadia for the trust, and I’m sure we’ll soon repay her with some celebratory pineapple pizza.»

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez left the Honda camp after 2022 to join Gresini last year and scored a podium in only his second race weekend with the squad in Argentina. He would go on to add another rostrum to his tally near the end of the season in Malaysia, as well as two sprint wins at Silverstone and Sepang, to secure a career-best ninth in the championship.

Although Marquez hasn’t been able to claim a top-three spot so far this year on his year-old Ducati this year, partly due to the step the Borgo Panigale marque has made with the GP24, he has been inside the top 10 in every grand prix he has finished so far.

That has put him a respectable 10th in the standings ahead of this weekend’s German Grand Prix on 62 points, just behind the factory Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

Combined with elder brother Marc’s stellar start to the year, the Gresini squad sits a strong third in the teams’ championship, trailing only factory Ducati and Pramac outfits.

Nadia Padovani, Gresini Racing owner, said: «Alex is our pupil. Since he joined two years ago, the synergy between him and the team has been incredible and has strengthened with each race. 

“We know his potential; he has already shown it and just needs consistency. Renewing with him was an obvious move for us because we are aware of his value both on and off the track. 

“The results will come this year too, I am absolutely certain of it.»



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Marquez’s Assen MotoGP tyre pressure penalty highlights unfair rules flaw

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Marc Marquez was only 0.01 bar outside of MotoGP’s minimum tyre pressure rule for one lap of the Dutch Grand Prix and feels contact with Enea Bastianini was to blame.

The Gresini Ducati rider finished fourth in Sunday’s 26-lap grand prix at Assen, but was later demoted to 10th after being hit with a post-race time penalty of 16 seconds for breaching MotoGP’s minimum front tyre pressure rule.

Marquez revealed he felt from the first lap that his tyre temperature was strangely low, and tried to control it by allowing VR46 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio to overtake him on lap eight in a bid to use his dirty air to bring the pressure back up.

While this helped, the rules breach came on lap 21 when Ducati’s Enea Bastianini overtook Marquez at Turn 1 and sent him off-track due to contact.

Needing to ride within the minimum limit of 1.8 bar for 15 laps (amounting to 60% of full race distance), Marquez missed this by one tour, with his pressure dropping 0.01 bar outside of the legal tolerance as he recovered from running off-track.

“0.01 for one lap,” Marquez responded when asked how much underneath the limit he was. “It’s a shame, but the rules are the rules.

“The only thing we were discussing with the stewards, for that reason it delayed the penalty, because as you saw in the race I started in a good way but suddenly I saw on the front there was something strange and the tyre pressure was super low.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“Then I let DiGia pass just to control the front pressure, and then I was there behind him all the race.

“I was controlling in a good way, I was inside. But what I didn’t expect was the contact with Enea, where he pushed me out.

“And when I was out that lap, I was one second slower and I didn’t push well in that Turn 3 and Turn 5, because I didn’t know how the tyre would be after coming from the run-off area.

“It dropped again, took two laps to come back and those two laps made me out of that minimum, which is 15 laps today.”

This has highlighted a flaw with the rules. Marquez has flagged this to the FIM stewards, who seemingly agree with the eight-time world champion.

While he accepts his punishment, because it falls under the current regulatory framework, he believes it should be tweaked for the future so that incidents which cause a rider to unintentionally breach the tyre pressure rules can be seen as mitigating circumstances.

“Can be, and it’s what they say to me is that it can be a consideration for the future,” he replied when asked if the tyre pressure rules should be changed to account for the situation he found himself in at Assen.

“But right now, the rules are the rules. And maybe it can change for the future.

“I think yes, especially if somebody hits you and you are out of the track. Because in the end, now the rules say if you don’t lose 16s in a lap, we cannot change the rules.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“With these bikes, if you are one second or 1.5s slower in a lap, the pressure already drops 0.05. Should be [the rule], but at the moment it’s what I say to them, I needed to ask [if that could be a defence] because I was out [off-track] for a collision with another rider.

“And I need to ask, and they said ‘no, it’s the rules’. And I said ‘I agree with you’. The rules right now are like this and we need to wait.”

Marquez added that he thought Bastianini would have been given an order to drop one position after their collision, but Bastianini believes Marquez risked more trying to hang on around the outside of him.

The Gresini rider was the only one found to have breached the tyre pressure rules at Assen. He is the sixth rider to be punished this season, after five penalties were handed out in the Jerez sprint.

Since the regulation was introduced last year, it has caused a headache for teams in setting pressure to match the race circumstances their rider might find. This is a process that involves all of the teams and is not set by Michelin, whose tyre technicians can only offer advice.

Marquez’s team anticipated that he would be riding in the pack, starting from sixth, and so when he found himself in third on lap two it put him at risk. This explains why he waved Di Giannantonio through on lap eight, though he noted that his front pressure only went up by 0.1 bar behind the VR46 Ducati – which was much less than expected.

He also pointed to climactic conditions at Assen as playing a part in his pressure struggles.

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Marquez penalised for tyre pressure infringement in Assen MotoGP race

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Marc Marquez has been hit with a penalty for a tyre pressure rule infraction in the MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix, dropping him to 10th.

Under the current rules, riders must race for 30% of a sprint and 60% of a grand prix within the minimum tyre pressures – which for the front is 1.8 bar (26.1psi).

Marquez fell foul of this limit in Sunday’s Assen race and has been hit with an 18-second time penalty, dropping him from fourth to 10th behind Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

The Gresini Ducati rider spent the entirety of the 26-lap Assen grand prix battling for the final podium place, which ultimately went to factory Ducati counterpart Enea Bastianini.

Marquez moved up to third on lap two after overtaking Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales at Turn 5 and ran in that position until an odd moment on the eighth tour.

Exiting Turn 8 Marquez looked behind him and appeared to point to the inside of Turn 9 in a message to VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio for where to overtake.

Marquez didn’t drop away from Di Giannantonio, leading to speculation that his front tyre pressure was lower than the rules permitted and he needed dirty air ahead to bring the temperature back up.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Following Marquez’s penalty, the new top 10 is as follows:

  1. Francesco Bagnaia
  2. Jorge Martin
  3. Enea Bastianini
  4. Fabio Di Giannantonio
  5. Maverick Vinales
  6. Brad Binder
  7. Alex Marquez
  8. Raul Fernandez
  9. Franco Morbidelli
  10. Marc Marquez



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Martin ‘had no chance to be first’ throughout Assen MotoGP weekend

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MotoGP standings leader Jorge Martin feels his Dutch Grand Prix grid penalty had no impact on his ability to fight for victory, noting he had ‘no chance to be first’.

The Pramac Ducati rider struggled for feeling on his GP24 in Friday practice and admitted then that he was surprised he was even inside the top 10.

Martin was able to challenge for pole, but couldn’t outpace Bagnaia, and could do nothing to beat the factory Ducati team rider in both races.

The championship leader – who is now only 10 points clear of Bagnaia – was hit with a three-place grid penalty for the grand prix for an infringement in qualifying, dropping him from second to fifth.

Martin was able to get up to second in the opening few corners but doesn’t believe the penalty denied him a chance to fight Bagnaia, who beat him by 3.676 seconds.

“No, I don’t think so,” Martin said when asked if the penalty hurt his victory hopes.

“I don’t think today I had any chance, or this weekend, to be first.

“Maybe in qualifying, I was close. Maybe I could improve a little bit that lap time, but in the race it was impossible.

“Pecco was on another level. Maybe something would be different [without the penalty], maybe I would have tried a move at the beginning, I don’t know.

“But I got the penalty, so there’s no sense speaking about that.”

Martin added: “Was a difficult weekend, at least on Friday and Saturday morning.

“We were able to turn it around with yesterday’s podium. The feeling wasn’t fantastic, but today I have no excuse.

“I have to congratulate Pecco, because he was riding on another level.

“I felt perfect, I felt I was riding really good, I saw the lap times and it was amazing how fast we were going. And still, he was pulling away with some tenths every lap.”

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia, who celebrated his fifth grand prix win of the campaign and matched Casey Stoner’s tally of 23 career Ducati victories, admits there was must-win pressure on his shoulders given his form all weekend at Assen.

However, he “didn’t care» about this, stating: “For sure, it’s a really great moment.

“But also in 2021, last part of the season, 2022 in the middle of the season, last year at the start.

“So, many times it happened to me that I was feeling fantastic with the bike.

“Any moment I think I know perfectly our potential, I know if we work well we can fight every time for a win, and we can have some race weekends like this.

“So, this is giving me a lot of motivation. When you start a race that everyone says you have to win, for the pace, for what you did all the weekend, a second position is already a loss.

“So, in terms of pressure, it’s more but I didn’t care and I just enjoyed everything. I love this track, I love going fast, and with this kind of feeling in this track, it wasn’t a problem. So, I just enjoyed everything.”

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Bagnaia dominates for Assen double ahead of Martin

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World champion Francesco Bagnaia swept to his second win of the 2024 MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix weekend after dominating Sunday’s main race ahead of Jorge Martin.

Having eased to victory in the sprint on Saturday, Bagnaia stormed to a third-successive Dutch GP win of his career on Sunday on his factory Ducati having controlled the race from the off.

Starting from pole, Bagnaia grabbed the holeshot off the line and was never headed in the 26-lap race.

Martin recovered early from a three-place grid penalty for irresponsible riding in qualifying, but could go no further than second to see his championship lead shrink to 10 points going to next weekend’s German GP.

Enea Bastianini completed the podium on the second factory team Ducati having come from 10th on the grid, showing great late-race pace to overhaul Marc Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Maverick Vinales in the closing stages. 

At the start, just as he did in the sprint, Bagnaia got the best launch to hold the lead as Vinales on the Aprilia slotted into second ahead of a fast-starting Martin from fifth.

Martin took second from Vinales into Turn 8 on the opening lap, with Marquez following suit on his Gresini Ducati at Turn 5 on the second tour.

Bagnaia had established a lead of 0.8s over Martin as he started lap three, though the Pramac rider would close this to 0.6s two tours later.

The lead would never shrink below this mark, however, as Bagnaia had the pace to keep Martin’s advances in check.

At the start of lap six, Bagnaia was a second clear and would grow this to 3.676s through to the chequered flag to become the first rider since Mick Doohan in 1998 to win three successive grands prix at Assen.

The battle for the final podium spot raged through to the final laps, with Marquez relinquishing third to VR46 Ducati rider Di Giannantonio at Turn 8 on lap eight.

Marquez appeared to point to the gap he wanted Di Giannantonio to come through on him, leading to speculation that a low front tyre pressure was causing concern.

On lap 19, Di Giannantonio checked up slightly at Turn 8 as Marquez was coming up his inside, allowing Aprilia’s Vinales to jump into third ahead of the pair of satellite Ducatis.

But the danger rider in the battle for third was Bastianini, who picked his way up from 10th on the grid to overhaul Vinales at Turn 16 on lap 22.

The factory Ducati rider moved 0.795s clear of the group behind, headed by Marquez – who recovered from an off at Turn 1 on lap 21 after being nudged wide by Bastianini to claim fourth – and Vinales initially.

But Vinales – who ran wide at Turn 15 on the last lap, ceding fourth – was demoted a spot to sixth after exceeding track limits at the last corner defending fifth from Di Giannantonio.

Brad Binder was top KTM in seventh after Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta crashed out of that position on the last lap.

Alex Marquez faded from the front row to eighth on the second Gresini Ducati, while Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez was ninth on his 2023-spec Aprilia ahead of Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli.

Fabio Quartararo was the sole Yamaha at the chequered flag in 12th after team-mate Alex Rins crashed out at Turn 1 on the opening lap.

Johann Zarco was the top Honda in 13th on his LCR-run bike, with Joan Mir crashing out.

VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi also fell out of contention, while Aprilia duo Aleix Espargaro and wildcard Lorenzo Savadori did not take the start due to injury sustained in a crash in Saturday’s sprint.

MotoGP Dutch GP Race Results:



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Espargaro ruled out of Dutch MotoGP race after high-speed crash

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Aleix Espargaro will sit out Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix following a high-speed crash on the final lap of the sprint race, his Aprilia MotoGP team has announced.

Espargaro’s participation in the Assen contest had been in doubt since he fell off his bike at Turn 15 and had to be taken to the hospital for check-ups.

The Spaniard’s condition for the race was initially expected to be evaluated in the warm-up, but before the session officially began Aprilia revealed that he will in fact not take part in any action on Sunday.

“Dear Media, just to inform you that Aleix Espargaro will not race today, even in the warm up session, in order to speed up the recovery. Thank you,” read a short statement from the Noale marque.

 

In his absence, the factory Aprilia team will be represented by team-mate Maverick Vinales and wildcard test rider Lorenzo Savadori, plus Trackhouse satellite duo Miguel Oliviera and Raul Fernandez.

A CT scan during Saturday’s visit to the hospital had revealed that Espargaro suffered a simple fracture at the metacarpal 5 on his right hand.

The 34-year-old was visibly shaken when he lost the control of his Aprilia RS-GP on the final lap of the sprint while fighting for fifth place.

It was his second major crash of the weekend, having already suffered a nasty highside going into the final chicane in second practice on Friday.

He was still able to progress directly into Q2 and qualify fifth for both the sprint and the main grand prix, two-places behind team-mate Maverick Vinales.

With Martin having been handed a grid penalty for impeding Raul Fernandez in qualifying, he would have lined up fourth for the grand prix had he been able to take the start.

But with Espargaro now focusing on his recovery, Martin will move back up to fifth, while Team VR46’s Fabio di Giannatonio will complete the second row on the grid.

Aprilia has looked solid in the Assen weekend so far, with Vinales occupying the final spot on the podium in the sprint behind runaway race winner Francesco Bagnaia and second-placed Pramac rider Jorge Martin.

Oliveira missed out on a points finish in 12th, while Fernandez ended up 17th and Savadori crashed out with eight laps to run

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team crash

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team crash

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

 

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Martin hit with grid penalty for MotoGP Dutch GP after qualifying incident

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MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix after impeding Raul Fernandez in qualifying.

Pramac Ducati rider Martin qualified second on the grid at Assen and stayed there in Saturday’s 13-lap sprint, losing out to title rival Francesco Bagnaia.

A number of riders tripped over each other and aborted laps during qualifying, as they either sought tows or looked to stop being followed, with Martin among those caught up in this.

Video footage shows him backing off into Turn 1, with just over three minutes to go, and gesticulating at the traffic in front of him before looking behind him.

Trackhouse Racing’s Fernandez is behind Martin on track at this moment, but it is not clear at what point through Turns 2 and 3 – where the FIM stewards have identified the incident took place – that the Aprilia rider catches a slowing Martin.

Martin is then seen running well wide around Turn 4, with Fernandez coming underneath him before they make slight contact into Turn 5. The Pramac rider tagged the back of Fernandez as he slowed up to vent frustration at Martin.

Initially releasing a document stating that Martin was being punished for an incident in second practice on Friday, the stewards quickly clarified the offence was in Q2.

Martin will drop from second on the grid to fifth, promoting Maverick Vinales to second, Alex Marquez to the front row in third and Aleix Espargaro to fourth.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The FIM document read: “On 29 June 2024 at 11:36.33, during the Qualifying 2 session at the Motul TT Assen, you [Martin] were observed to be riding slow on-line [and] disturbing another rider — #25 [Fernandez] – at Turns 2-3.

“This contravenes the specific instructions given to MotoGP competitors and teams [regarding] disrupting the session, and is considered irresponsible riding. It is therefore an infringement of Article 1.21.2 of the FIM Grand Prix World Championship regulations.

“For the above reasons, the FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel has imposed a three grid positions penalty for the Motul TT Assen MotoGP race.”

As this was a first offence for Martin this season, the punishment has been kept lenient.

Martin’s penalty has been issued specifically for the Dutch GP, rather than the next grand prix in which he competes – wording that came into use last year after the controversy surrounding the changing of language used in a punishment given to Marc Marquez in Portugal.

Under the current wording of Martin’s penalty, should he be unable to take the start of the GP on Sunday due to an injury, he would not have to serve that grid drop.

On a number of occasions since that alternate wording came into use, however, stewards’ notifications on penalties have been inconsistent as to which line they use.

Martin is now just 15 points clear of Bagnaia in the championship following the Assen sprint race. He explained afterwards that he struggled for front-end support through Turns 6 and 12 during the 13-lap race.

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