Ducati rider Pecco Bagnaia has accepted full responsibility for the penalty he was handed after free practice one at the San Marino Grand Prix on Friday.
Having forced LCR Honda rider Alex Marquez to take avoiding action, the Italian was handed a three-place penalty on Sunday’s grid – a sanction he admitted was justified.
He was also seen repeatedly apologising to both Marquez and Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, who was running close behind.
Bagnaia explained afterwards that he believed that the chequered flag had already come out to end the session at the time, and as such backed off through the Misano circuit’s opening corners, causing Marquez to only just miss out on hitting him in the middle of the track as he cruised home.
Incident under investigation 👀
Stewards will be looking at this moment between @PeccoBagnaia and @alexmarquez73 💥#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/Gr4rSU46YC
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 2, 2022
“I think it was correct,” Bagnaia admitted afterwards of the sanction. “I totally agree with it.
“I did a mistake, and I thought I had already taken the chequered flag but I didn’t. I’ve already said sorry to the stewards, and that it is OK, that it is correct. I also asked why three grid places and not a long lap and they told me it is because it is the first time I did it.
“For the first time you get a warning that his three grid penalties, then a long lap. I agree with them – it’s the only way to have a step and to pay more attention in this situation.”
That’s a conclusion that team boss Davide Tardozzi also sided with, conceding that it means an added challenge in Bagnaia’s quest to become the first Ducati rider in history to win four races in a row.
“He made a mistake and he has to pay something,” said the former racer. “In the end it is OK because the intention was not to give trouble to Alex Marquez but he missed the flag, he thought the session was finished, and the stewards accepted that he was right in his explanation.
“But he made a mistake and honestly now he’s more in trouble because he needs to be at least in the top three tomorrow to ensure that he will be on the second row. The third row makes the race very difficult.”
However, the sanction did also raise an old issue once again, as Bagnaia was asked whether or not the three-place grid penalty was more severe than a long-lap penalty – particularly of the kind title rival Fabio Quartararo had to serve in Silverstone last month, where the penalty loop was recognised as being particularly short.
“Today, I think we have to discuss this,” said Bagnaia, “but in the safety commission we already have talked about how all the long laps need to be the same – but it’s impossible to do.
“Silverstone doesn’t have so much runoff in some parts of the track to do it, so it would be hard to have the same amount of time in every track. But we will work on it.”
