Chaotic Sunday
Surprisingly, no penalty was given by the stewards to Raul Fernandez for the contact that occurred during the first lap of the third restart in which the Spanish Trackhouse team rider took down his compatriot Jorge Martin, from the Aprilia factory. The incident was also commented on after the race, to the microphones of Sky, by Davide Brivio, Trackhouse team principal, who during the race had also received a visit – far from friendly – from Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia, understandably angry about Martin’s crash.
Brivio’s analysis
However, Brivio defended Fernandez’s maneuver and agreed with the decision made by the commissioners: “Some space was created at the entrance of that corner, Raúl entered and then there was contact. It’s a racing incident” – Brivio claimed – I don’t know if it’s 50-50, but it was legitimate for Raúl to attempt the overtake. Martín probably tried to defend himself, closed the line, and it’s a racing incident. I don’t feel like blaming one or the other, in fact the stewards decided not to take any action“.
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Regarding the Ogura-Acosta contact on the last lap, for which the Japanese rider received a three-second penalty, Brivio accepted the penalty: “We accept the stewards’ decision, he attempted an overtake on the last corner and when he entered there was a small contact, unfortunately. In fact, I want to apologize also to KTM, to Pedro, these are things you don’t want to happen, it’s a shame. Pedro had a great race. But these are two racing incidents: on one no action was taken, on the second we accept it, because unfortunately we ruined a good result for Pedro Acosta“.
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