This will be the event to watch in this British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and all the more so as it will concern championship leader Fabio Quartararo. This will be the moment when, at the start of the race, the Yamaha official will have to serve his so-called long-term sentence for the events which occurred during the Dutch Grand Prix and for which he was held responsible. A sanction which was not appreciated, neither by the pilot, nor by his boss Lin Jarvis, to say the least. But we will still have to go through that. What will be the amount of the bill for classification? Figures give an estimate.
The facts ofAssen dates back five weeks, but a summer break passed by before having to serve his punishment at Silverstone, this week-end. Because the commissioners considered that fabio quartararo had been far too optimistic in his overtaking maneuver on Aleix Espargaró, which ended in the gravel trap for both men, the Frenchman will have to go through a long lap during the British Grand Prix. This while the Batavian escapade ended in two falls and a blank result for the pilot Yamaha while the official Aprilia, and the tricolor's first championship rival, made a dazzling rise to fourth place.
That being said, what about the English quote? It is precisely from the site across the Channel that this interesting expertise comes, i.e. crash.net. The essential Peter McLaren launches into the calculations and here is the result: Fabio Quartararo has qualified an average of fourth out of the eleven rounds so far this season, finishing the first lap of racing in the same position. Drivers starting a race with a “long lap” to serve must clear the penalty within three laps, i.e. at the end of round 4. The Frenchman's average position in the 4th round of races this season has also been fourth place. Other MotoGP riders who took the same type of sanction this year, Jack Miller et Franco Morbidelli, lost 3-4 places when returning to the track.
Fabio Quartararo will find himself in the peloton with a Yamaha that hates it
This would therefore theoretically put the Frenchman 7th or 8th in the test. That being said, from Portimao, Quarterly qualified on average third and he occupied second place in lap 4. We would see him in this scenario around 5th or 6th position after the “long lap”. Said like that, there's nothing prohibitive, but fabio quartararo rolls on a Yamaha who can't stand living in a platoon with the ragtag battles that take place there. Because the M1 does not have the engine it needs to extricate itself from this melee. Then the front tire builds up pressure and heats up…
In fact, riding in a package is the worst thing your person can experience. Yamaha . Each time the World Champion has shone this year, it is because he managed to escape and impose his pace, on a dry track of course. This sanction to be served is therefore not trivial and it will be interesting to see how the title holder will approach this obstacle, which is hard on the nerves.
