Mir penalised over Quartararo clash in Portugal MotoGP Sprint

Joan Mir has been issued a long lap penalty for his contact with Fabio Quartararo on Lap 1 of the Sprint race at the Portugal MotoGP round.

The new Honda rider attempted to pass Quartararo at Turn 13 of the Portimao circuit, hitting the Monster Energy Yamaha rider and forcing him wide.

Mir crashed out altogether, but still earned the ire of stewards.

“On 25 March 2023, 15:03:56 during the MotoGP Sprint of the GRANDE PREMIO TISSOT DE PORTUGAL at Turn 13 you were observed as being overly ambitious and causing contact with Rider #20, which severely impacted their race,” read the official Notification of Sanction, in part.

“This contravenes the specific instructions given to MotoGP competitors and teams, disrupting the session, and is considered irresponsible riding causing danger to other competitors.

“It is therefore an infringement of Article 1.21.2 of the FIM World Championship Grand Prix Regulations.”

The Repsol Honda Team unsuccessfully appealed the penalty, being able only to present an additional photograph of the incident to support their case.

Quartararo had dropped from his already lowly grid position of 11th position to 14th by the time the clash occurred, causing him to lose another five positions.

The 2021 champion would gradually make his way up to 10th in the rest of the 12-lap contest, one spot outside the points in the new-for-2023 Sprint race.

Qualifying sets the grid for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix race, meaning Quartararo is back in 11th for lights out on Sunday afternoon (local time) and Mir in 14th.

The other incident which went to a past-race review, that being the crash at Turn 5 when Luca Marini hit Enea Bastianini, was quickly deemed ‘no further action’ in the minutes after the chequered flag.

Mir will have to serve his penalty by the end of Lap 4, with the loop located at Turn 14.