Andrea Iannone has been handed a penalty point for an incident during qualifying at Le Mans on Saturday. The Italian was deemed to have ridden dangerously after he rejoined the track at the Garage Bleu Esses almost directly beside Marc Marquez, who was on a flying lap.
Marquez had complained about the move during the press conference, but Iannone had claimed that he had run out of brakes at the Chemin aux Boeufs chicane and cut across the sliproad.
Marquez had responded to that suggestion by pointing out that if you’ve run out of brakes, you normally close the throttle across the sliproad, rather than accelerate. Race Direction appear to agree with Marquez’s assessment. Below is the press release on the incident:
FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix
Monster Energy Grand Prix de France – Decision of the Race Direction
On 17 May, 2014 during the MotoGP Qualifying 2 session of the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France, the rider #29 in the MotoGP class, Mr Andrea Iannone ran off the circuit and rejoined the circuit at a speed and in a position which caused danger to himself and another rider, and disrupted the progress of the other rider.
This is considered to be irresponsible riding and is therefore an infringement of Article 1.21.2 of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Regulations.
A Race Direction hearing was held with the rider in attendance.
The decision of Race Direction is to impose the addition of one Penalty Point to the record of rider #29 Andrea Iannone, according to Article 3.3.1.3 of the 2014 FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Disciplinary and Arbitration Code.
No appeal was lodged.
The decision of Race Direction is final.
Photo: © 2014 Scott Jones / Scott Jones Photography – All Rights Reserved
This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.
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