Fabio Quartararo has been given an eight-second penalty in the Spanish MotoGP Sprint for breaking tyre pressure rules. Dani Pedrosa inherited third place.
Quartararo finished the Sprint in third place, ahead of Pedrosa who took fourth. Footage posted to social media by thee Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team showed Pedrosa was unaware of the position he was in in the closing laps of the Sprint until he returned to the pits after the race, and therefore unaware that he was fighting for the podium.
Quartararo had come from 23rd on the grid to cross the line third, and he spent much of the final part of the race with clear air in front of him, after a flurry of crashes among the leaders.
After the race, Quartararo was found to have run above the minimum front tyre pressure of 1.80 bar for less than 60 per cent of the race's laps, which is the new minimum portion of the race that the riders must maintain at least the 1.80-bar minimum pressure.
Earlier this year, MotoGP updated its tyre pressure rule to mean that the planned disqualification for breaches was dropped in favour of time penalties. In the Sprint, a breach of the rule will earn the rider an eight-second time penalty, while a breach in a Grand Prix will see the rider awarded with 16 seconds of time penalty.
Quartararo's penalty drops him to 15.052 seconds behind Spanish Grand Prix Sprint winner Jorge Martin, meaning he is now classified fifth, while Pedrosa moves up to third and Franco Morbidelli is promoted to fourth.
There were also penalties for Jack Miller, Alex Rins, and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who all crashed and remounted, as well as for Raul Fernandez.
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