It is one of the stories of this MotoGP season. The riders do not agree with many of the stewards’ decisions and criticize them harshly. In Jerez, for example, Johann Zarco gave an angry speech. The Frenchman then apologized for his behavior. But the conflict is far from over. In Barcelona, the next chapter in the dispute between the stewards’ panel around ex-MotoGP rider Freddie Spencer and Enea Bastianini is now underway. The latter ignored a penalty in the Catalonia GP and even tried to take action against it after the race.
It should be noted that Enea Bastianini was already penalized two weeks ago in the Le Mans Grand Prix when he left the track while attempting to overtake Aleix Espargaro. The ‘short cut’ resulted in a long lap penalty for the Ducati rider. The next time, it was the Italian who was in the spotlight again. After a maneuver by Alex Marquez in turn one, Bastianini had to leave the track. The rules state that the MotoGP rider must lose at least one second on his average time in the respective section after taking a shortcut. In the opinion of the stewards, ‘La Bestia’ did not do this, so they gave him a long lap.
Enea Bastianini: How was I supposed to get back on track?
After the race, the 26-year-old explained that he saw no way to avoid the shortcut. “I overtook Alex Marquez on the straight and then braked late. But he braked even later and then pushed me onto the kerb. I had no chance of hitting the chicane. I could have come back, but where? On the kerbs or in the middle of turn two?”
“I actually lost time, more than a second, because I drove over the long lap lane. I actually expected Alex to give the position back to me,” revealed an angry Bastianini. The stewards saw it differently and gave him a long lap penalty. A short time later, the fourth-placed driver in the World Championship received the message on his dashboard. “Yes, of course I saw the message. But I decided to ignore it and just carry on driving. I know it’s not the nicest thing to do, but we have to do something. Nothing else changes. It’s the same in every race. We need to clarify a lot.”
Enea Bastianini: MotoGP stewards do not understand the problem
The further events were the result of the clearly defined rules. Since Bastianini did not serve his penalty within the next three laps, the stewards increased the penalty to a double long lap. Bastianini also let this sanction pass, so he was given a drive-through penalty according to the MotoGP regulations. After the race, this penalty was converted into a time penalty of 32 seconds. Bastianini, who finished the Grand Prix in ninth place and thus collected a few World Championship points, was pushed back to 18th place and lost all points for the championship.
After the race, the former Moto2 world champion tried to appeal against the penalty. “I went to them after the race to explain it. I told them to watch the video. I lost time because I was pushed off the track and even pulled back in behind Alex. At first they didn’t want to believe it, but then they saw it and agreed with me that the decision was wrong. But did they understand it?”
The fact that the decision was wrong, however, does not help Bastianini. The result of the Catalonia GP cannot be revised. “I spoke to the race director and tried to get my ninth place back. But there is nothing they can do about it. Once a penalty has been imposed, it cannot be taken back, even if it was wrong. That’s crazy!”