Yamaha fails to score a single World Championship point in MotoGP at Assen: Team Director Massimo Meregalli criticises race commissioners’ decision
MotoGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo made his first major blunder of the current season at the final race before the summer break. At the race in Assen, Quartararo crashed while trying to overtake Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro in turn 5. Espargaro had to swerve into the gravel. Following the race, race control issued a penalty against Quartararo.
At the upcoming race in Silverstone, Quartararo will have to complete a long-lap penalty. Yamaha cannot understand the penalty at all. Team director Massimo Meregalli classifies the incident at the Dutch TT in Assen as a racing accident.
“We see the decision of the Race Direction to give him a penalty for the next race as very harsh, considering that he didn’t cause anyone to crash and Aleix was able to score points,” commented the Yamaha Team Director.
The tone of Massimo Meregalli gets harsher: “The decisions of the race directors are not constant, considering that incidents in past Grands Prix went unpunished.” Meregalli is alluding to the starting accident at the Barcelona Grand Prix in which Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami swept two rivals out of the race and received no penalty.
For the first time since 1985, not a single Yamaha rider in the points
In the past, Assen was one of Yamaha’s paradise tracks. Valentino Rossi took many victories and won his last Grand Prix at the circuit. With the retirement of Fabio Quartararo, the crashes of teammate Franco Morbidelli and RNF rider Darryn Binder and the 16th place of Andrea Dovizioso, Yamaha came away completely empty-handed at Assen. For the first time since the Grand Prix at Assen in the 1985 season, Yamaha failed to score any points.
“These kind of results were not what we expected. Fortunately, none of the riders got injured in the crashes. We went into the race with the expectation of being able to show a good performance. We were very well prepared for this race,” notes Meregalli.
In the championship, Quartararo (172 points) continues to lead ahead of Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro (151 points). Among the manufacturers, Yamaha (172 points) is in second position, but already has a big gap to Ducati (246 points).
