Jorge Martin has been awarded a three-place grid penalty for today's MotoGP Dutch TT at Assen for riding slowly in qualifying.
Martin qualified second, but his second run of Q2 began messily. He bailed out of his first lap at turn one, and rode off-circuit while gesticulating at a group of riders ahead of him who had all slowed. Martin re-entered the track between turns two and three in front of Raul Fernandez, which the FIM MotoGP Stewards deemed to be an unsafe rejoin of the track, and thus handed Martin a three-place grid penalty.
It means that Martin loses his second place starting position alongside pole sitter and Sprint winner Francesco Bagnaia, with Maverick Vinales taking up that position. Meanwhile, the Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez is promoted to the front row in third place.
Aleix Espargaro would have taken fourth place, having qualified fifth, but he has withdrawn from the weekend after crashing on the final lap of the Sprint and breaking a metacarpal in his hand. That means that Fabio Di Giannantonio gains two grid positions for the Dutch TT and will start fourth, ahead of Martin in fifth, while the second row will now be completed by Marc Marquez, who crashed out of the Sprint, in sixth.
