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Pramac Ducati says it has received an explanation from FIM MotoGP stewards as to why Johann Zarco wasn’t promoted onto the Mugello podium despite penalties ahead of him.
Both second-placed Miguel Oliveira and third-placed Joan Mir clipped the green paint beyond the kerb – the measure of a track limits infringement – on the final tour of the Italian Grand Prix, and Oliveira was initially demoted a place behind Mir, before the Suzuki rider was also penalised and the original finishing positions were reinstated.
The penalties were because of a guideline introduced in 2019, that stipulated that a last-lap track limit infringement should result in an automatic loss of one position, to “ensure that any rider exceeding track limits on the final lap must be in a worse position than the rider or riders with whom they are directly competing for a finish position”.
However, the question arose over whether Zarco should’ve been placed ahead of both in the final order, given he finished fourth and was only 3.535s off.
It was an especially pertinent question given earlier in the day in Moto3 Pedro Acosta and Sergio Garcia were handed the same penalty for a last-lap infringement and demoted. Acosta went from seventh to eighth and Garcia went from eighth to ninth, with John McPhee promoted at both riders’ expense.
There was an initial suggestion that Pramac would protest, but after team boss Francesco Guidotti went to the stewards for a clarification, the matter was ultimately dropped.
“I don’t know what happened in Moto3 because I didn’t see it,” Guidotti told The Race. “In our case, I went upstairs to clarify how the interpretation was in this case, and for me it was correct.
“I didn’t go there to make a protest, just to know what the interpretation was. They’d already checked it and evaluated it, and they told me that both riders, Oliveira and Mir, went on the green at Turn 5.
“In that sector, Zarco was at a 0.7s gap behind. In that case it was far enough to not apply the penalty.
“If it was less than half a second in the last sector it would have been a different interpretation. We are talking about nothing that they went out – five or 10 centimetres.”
Zarco and Enea Bastianini are seemingly still under investigation for a warm-up lap incident, in which Bastianini braked hard to avoid Zarco and went over his handlebars, emerging unhurt but exiting the race.
Zarco’s written media session was cancelled in the aftermath of the race, out of respect for the loss of Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier earlier today.
