Stewards have issued multiple penalties to two Moto3 riders for a trackside fight after a crash in practice at the Valencia Grand Prix.
Jaume Masia and Kaito Toba will both start from pit lane and both have to serve a long lap penalty, as well as pay a EUR 1000 (AUD 1539 at AUD 1 = EUR 0.6494) fine, as punishment for their physical altercation at the end of Free Practice 3.
Both had gone down after they made contact when Masia tried to overtake on the inside of Toba at Turn 11 of the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
While it was debatable as to whose fault the initial incident was, given the CIP Green Power rider had left a big opening before cutting back, each appeared to be blaming the other as they trudged through the gravel.
Broadcast cameras caught Toba tapping Masia on the side of his helmet before the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider struck out at his Japanese rival, who was also still wearing his helmet.
They then engaged in further pushing before marshals stepped in to separate the duo.
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Identical Notifications of Sanction (save for rider names/numbers) were released for each, which stated in part, “On 05 November 2022 09:39 during GRAN PREMIO MOTUL DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA FP3 Session you were found to be fighting with rider [Masia or Toba].
“This contravenes Article 3.3.2.2 of the FIM World Championship Grand Prix Regulations ‘any corrupt of [sic] fraudulent act, or any action of prejudicial to the interests of the meetings or of the sport, carried out by a person or a group of persons occurring during an event’ It is therefore an infringement of the FIM World Championship Grand Prix Regulations, being detrimental to the interest of the sport.”
Masia would otherwise have started 11th and Toba 25th, while already crowned champion Izan Guevara took pole on his Valresa GasGas Aspar Team entry.
A short time after the Moto3 stoush, in MotoGP FP3, Marco Bezzecchi committed an action which stewards would judge as “physical contact with a marshal in an aggressive and unprofessional manner.”
That came after the Italian had crashed in the opening minutes of the session, causing his Mooney VR46 Ducati to catch fire.
He too was fined EUR 1000 although that and an official warning were the extent of his sanctions.
Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda) received a three-position grid penalty for impeding eventual pole-sitter Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati) in that same session, which dropped him from 21st to the very back of the 24-strong grid once qualifying was done.
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