KTM rider Miguel Oliveira has been assessed a double penalty for the Australian Grand Prix after qualifying on Saturday – and both of his infractions compromised outside title hopeful Enea Bastianini.
Bastianini, 39 points off the championship lead with 75 up for grabs, ended qualifying in a provisional 15th place after being knocked out in Q1.
He was four hundredths short of beating Suzuki’s Alex Rins, who took the final Q1 transfer spot, on his final lap, having had to pass a slow Oliveira through the famous downhill Lukey Heights corner.
Under investigation! 🚨@_moliveira88 may have impeded @Bestia23 on his final lap 🛑#AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/gQ7F7uZ691
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 15, 2022
And even that laptime then was anyway erased as he was judged to have passed a yellow flag zone, the yellow flags having been seemingly brought out by none other than Oliveira.
“For the qualifying I was ready, I was more competitive – but we all saw what happened in the last lap, and we can do nothing,” Bastianini said.
“Oliveira tried the practice start during the last lap, they put the yellow flag out, and, you know… it’s strange, no, this one? Because you can’t do this.
“But also after he ruined my lap.”
The laptime impact of Oliveira’s presence on track is hard to gauge exactly, with the line separating sectors three and four – located right in the middle of Lukey Heights. Bastianini set his fastest S3, but was perhaps compromised in his entry into Turn 10 – and, having been very marginally up on Rins after three sectors, lost the pivotal four hundredths in S4.
Bastianini indicated he’s still hoping he may at least get 13th place reinstated, should the stewards find that the yellow flags had been already cleared by the time he passed through.
In any case, Oliveira has been penalised on both counts – for doing “an illegal practice start” and being “slow on the line”.
A three-place grid penalty moves him from 21st to last on the grid, promoting Raul Fernandez, Franco Morbidelli and Tetsuta Nagashima, while he will also have to serve a long-lap penalty in the race.
“To be honest, it was just my mistake. There’s nothing else to add,” Oliveira told MotoGP.com, before confirming that he’d thought he’d already taken the chequered flag.
“It was a misunderstanding with the information I got. When you are convinced it’s the last lap, it’s what happens.
“I’m really sorry for that. Of course it’s a dangerous situation for me and for him, and for every rider.
“There’s nothing that I can do to take it back. So, really sorry for that.”
