Moto3 riders Jeremy Alcoba and John McPhee have been sanctioned after coming to blows at the Grand Prix of Doha.
The incident followed a collision at Turn 1 on Lap 15, in which Alcoba made contact with the rear of Darryn Binder and subsequently took out McPhee, who’d also been an unlucky victim in the season-opener.
Tensions boiled over, with the stewards investigating “fighting” between the duo.
Both have since been fined 1000 Euros, and forced to start the next race at Portimao, Portugal, from the pit lane.
For Alcoba of Indonesian Racing Gresini, that will be with a five-second delay.
For Petronas Sprinta Racing’s McPhee, he will have to wait 10 seconds before being allowed to start from the lane.
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The pair’s actions were found to be “detrimental to the interests of the sport” and breached Article 3.3.2.2 of the FIM World Championship Grand Prix Regulations.
That article reads, “any corrupt or fraudulent act, or any action 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.”
McPhee said, “I’m gutted about the crash and it’s a shame for us to finish the race this way, because of another rider’s mistake. I felt strong all weekend again and especially in the race.”
It was a sour note to a generally wild race as rookie Pedro Acosta charged from a pit lane start to clinch his maiden Moto3 victory.
Acosta was one of seven riders forced to start from the lane after being penalised for irresponsible riding in Friday practice.
Having taken a podium finish on debut last weekend, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider pipped Binder by a mere 0.039s in the end.
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