A three-place grid penalty has been handed to Francesco Bagnaia by the FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel for impeding Alex Marquez in Practice for the MotoGP Italian Grand Prix.
The incident happened towards the end of Friday afternoon’s Practice session which is now the only session which decides which riders will go to Q1 and which will go straight to Q2 on Saturday.
Bagnaia was seen riding slowly on the line and almost being hit by Alex Marquez, who was furious with the Italian after having to take avoiding action on the run into Correntaio.
Although Marquez made it into Q2 in eighth, the Stewards’ decision cites “directly affecting progression to Q2” as a reason for awarding the three-place grid penalty.
Bagnaia, who has won each of the last two Italian Grands Prix in addition to last year’s Sprint, will serve his three-place grid penalty in Sunday’s race, meaning his best possible starting position for the Italian Grand Prix is fourth. It also means, though, that he will start from wherever he qualifies in the Sprint, which he infamously crashed out of at last weekend’s MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix.
Bagnaia goes into Saturday second in the riders’ standings, but 39 points behind championship leader and fellow Ducati rider Jorge Martin, who finished seventh on Friday in Italy.
