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Romano Fenati has been hit with a two-race ban for the incident in which he grabbed Stefano Manzi’s front brake lever in the Misano Moto2 race.
Fenati got a better run than Manzi off Turn 6 and, as they ran through the kinked section towards Turn 8, reached out and grabbed his fellow Italian’s brake.
The action seemed to be a response to Manzi running Fenati off the track with a messy attempted pass earlier in the race.
Both riders were sanctioned for their respective indiscretions with Fenati’s ban coming on top of his exclusion from the San Marino race for ‘irresponsible riding’.
“On 09 September 2018 at 12:52 during the Moto2 Race of the GRAN PREMIO OCTO DI SAN MARINO E DELLA RIVIERA DI RIMINI at the exit of turn 6, you were found to have deliberately attempted to cause danger to another rider by interfering with his machine whilst on track,” read the stewards notification to Fenati.
“This contravenes Article 1.21.2 of the FIM World Championship Grand Prix Regulations “Riders must ride in a responsible manner which does not cause danger to other competitors or participants, either on the track or in the pit lane. It is therefore an infringement of the FIM World Championship Grand Prix Regulations. This is considered a serious offense.
“For the above reasons and considering the seriousness of the infraction, the FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel has imposed on you a penalty of suspension from the next two (2) FIM GP World Championship Moto2 races.”
Manzi will serve a six-position grid penalty in the next race at Aragon on the weekend of September 21-23 after he too was found to have committed an act of ‘irresponsible riding’ in the attempted pass.
He went on to crash in an incident not related to the brake lever grab, shortly before Fenati was shown his black flag.
