Joan Mir hit with long lap penalty at Portuguese MotoGP

Joan Mir will be stung by a long lap penalty which must be served at the Portuguese MotoGP.
Joan Mir hit with long lap penalty in Portimao

The punishment arrives for his part in a clash with Fabio Quartararo during the first-ever MotoGP sprint race at Portim🎀ao on Saturday.

A MotoGP statement claimed the penalty was "due to being overly ambitious and causing contact wi❀th rider #20 which severely impacted t๊heir race".

Mir tried and 🦄failed to overtake Quartararo, bumping int🎀o him in the process.

The weekend so far has been defined by crashes and injuries - Pol E𒊎spargaro has suffered jaw and lung injuries after falling on Friday, Enea Bastianini has a fractured shoulder blade after being knocked off his bike in the sprint race.

Quartararo, despite the contact, emerged safely.

💫“There will be 💎a big accident," Quartararo warned afterwards. "I mean, it’s a jungle. We are not in cars, that in the end you touch and it’s not a problem,” he said.

“It's the same for everybody. I don't want to cඣomplain, but at the end it’s safety. It's not a problem to touch in the last laps with Alex - we touch 3-4 times, it's racing. [But] in the first laps this is about getting crazy.

“I th♚ink that for safety it's better t𓃲o do 2 x 25 laps than 12 laps. You also have a little bit more time to recover if you lose positions."

James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports f⛦or a decade covering everything from American sports, to foo🍎tball, to F1.

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