The FIM stewards decided that the clash with Aspergaro was ‘overly ambitious’ and that he was ‘not in a position to successfully complete the move and subsequently crashed, leaving the defending world champions to long at the following month’s British MotoGP. Lap penalties will be required to be served. Make contact with #41 and force him to widen’.
Aspargaro fell from second to 15th, before finishing fourth on the checkered flag. Quartaro climbed to last, then made a pit stop before crashing for the second and final time.
The young Frenchman, now 21 points short of closest rival Espargaro at the World Championships, Later admitted he had made a ‘stupid mistake’ And Aprilia apologized to the rider.
Meregalli feels that the matter should have come to an end and it appears that no penalty was given to Takaaki Nakagami for triggering a multiple-rider accident, including a wrist fracture, for Alex Rins in Barcelona.
Meregli said: “We view Fabio’s first accident as a race incident and feel that the Race Direction’s decision to approve him for the next race is not only harsh, given that he has not taken any chances with him. And Alex still scored points, but it’s also not in line with the race events we’ve seen in the first GP that were left unpunished.
“We will use this break to digest this GP and come back ready to fight at Silverstone in a month’s time.”
The Quartaro’s second crash is believed to have been caused by damage to its traction control system in the first fall.
Teammate Franco Morbidelli also bowed out of Sunday’s race.
