Yamaha: Quartararo penalty ‘unforeseen series of events', no 'malicious intent’
Monster Yamaha team principal explains why Fabio Quartararo was below the minimum tyre pressure in the Jerez Sprint, costing him a surprise ✱podium.
The opening three rounds of the MotoGP season passed without any tyre pressure penalties, but no less than five riders were hit with 8-second post-race sanctio🍰ns after Saturday’s Jerez Sprint.
The most high-profile was 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fabio Quartararo, whose penalty cos♉t him a rostrum after charging from 23rd to 3rd, aidওed by a chaotic 15 race accidents.
The other low-pressure penalties were for Raul Fernandez (6th), Fabio di Giannantonio (13th), Jack Miller (14th) and Quartararo’s Monster Yamaha team-mate Alex R🥂ins (🍰15th).
Riders are only required to stay above the minimum 1.8 bar front pressꦬure for 30% of a Sprint, compared to 60% of the Sunday grand prix laps, so why were so many caught out?
Monster Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli e🍎xplained that st☂arting so far back on the grid, it was expected that Quartararo would be running in (hotter) dirty air throughout the 12 laps.
“It's a pity thatꦡ we got an 8s penalty for running tyre pressure lower than the advised param𒀰eters. There was only a very slight difference,” Meregalli said.
“The tyre pressure decision is based on a protocol. The fact that Fabio started the Sprint from 🍰the penultimate row was also taken into account.
“But Fabio then rode the Sprint with clear space ahead of him - something we couldn‘t have expe🐬cted starting from P23 - and this lowered the tyre pres🌠sure.
"It was an unforesಞeen series o𝓡f events that got us in this position, it was never malicious intent.”
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Trackhouse team manager Wilco Zee⛎lenberg, whose rider Raul Fernandez 🎀was demoted from sixth to twelfth by his penalty, gave a similar explanation:
“Unluckily Raul’s tyre pressure was too low in the front - he h⛄ad no riders in 🅺front of him for much of the race and we didn’t expect that so the tyre cooled.
"Also, theꦅ pace was slow due to the track💦 conditions. I think that was the reason for the infringement.”
Jerez was only the second time riders have been♊ under pressure in a Sprint (after Valencia 2023) and underlꦜines the difficulty teams face when looking into a pre-race 'crystal ball' and calculating starting tyre pressure.
Others were a༒lso unhappy that, despite real-time tyre pressure monitoring, the penalties were announced long after the rostrum ceremony - with Quartararo - had finished.
That also meant KTM wild-card Dani Pedꦛrosa missed celebrating his first top-three since 2017 in front of his home fans.
Last season saw an off💖icial warning given for a first low-p✅ressure offence, but that has been removed for 2024, alongside the introduction of much bigger post-race time penalties.
The penalty for being under pressure in a grand﷽ prix is now 16 seconds.
𒁃Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzu🐻ki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
