Fabio Quartararo avoids injury but picks up British MotoGP penalty

Fabio Quartararo will be forced to take a long lap penalty when the 2022 MotoGP season resumes in August after he was penalised for the collision with Aleix Espargaro that ultimately led to his retirement from the Dutch MotoGP.

The Frenchman sunk to his first DNF in an otherwise metronomically consistent campaign thus far as he attempted to recover ground lost to leader Pecco Bagnaia, Quartararo instead getting caught up in a tussle with main title rival Espargaro through the initial laps.

However, his attempt to overtake at the low speed De Strubben hairpin sent him wide into Espargaro before coming down. 

Though it was Quartararo that came off worse in the physical impact, the attempted pass was still frowned upon by stewards after it forced Espargaro into the gravel trap and down to 15th place.

“Overly ambitious in attempting to overtake Espargaro,” read a statement on MotoGP.com. ”#20 was not in a position to successfully complete the move and subsequently crashed, causing contact with #41 and forcing him to run wide.

“The avoiding action undertaken by Espargaro allowed him to avoid crashing and rejoin. Nevertheless, his race was severely impacted. 

“Quartararo has been given a Long Lap penalty to be served in the MotoGP™ race at the Monster Energy British Grand Prix.

After remounting some 20secs down on the pack, Quartararo pitted soon after before returning to the track. However, a vicious high-side ended his race entirely soon after, the Frenchman checked for injuries to his left shoulder before getting the all clear.

Espargaro, meanwhile, mounted a fine comeback to fourth position on the Aprilia RS-GP to whittle Quartararo’s championship lead down to 23 points heading into the summer break.