BREAKING NEWS: Penalty for Franco Morbidelli, the reason and the contact with Pecco Bagnaia

Pecco Bagnaia out of Q2 and Morbidelli penalized by 3 positions in Buriram: here’s what happened in the last minute of the pre-qualifications.

At 9 AM (Italian time), the pre-qualifications for the first MotoGP weekend took place. The Marquez brothers dominated, setting a fast lap in the low 1:29s, but what shocked everyone was Pecco Bagnaia’s thirteenth position.

Number 63 will have to face Q1 tomorrow to hope to secure one of the last two spots in Q2, and then try for pole position. It’s been a tough start to the weekend for the Chivasso rider, although it seems that this mistake may not be entirely his fault.

Reconstruction of the events

A couple of minutes before the end of the practice session, Pecco Bagnaia set his fastest lap of the day at 1:29.492. However, this time was almost immediately canceled by race direction due to the yellow flag displayed for Marco Bezzecchi’s crash.

Time was running out, and it was against the Ducati rider. Despite this, Bagnaia had one last chance for a time attack: on the final flying lap, he even set a red sector in the first part of the track, but when entering T3, he encountered traffic. Franco Morbidelli, who had already finished his pre-qualification session, was on the same line as number 63.

The Italian-Brazilian rider seemingly didn’t notice Bagnaia approaching from behind, and so “Nuvola Rossa” was forced to lift his bike to avoid a collision (HERE is the video of the incident).

The race direction issued its ruling: 3 grid positions penalty for Franco Morbidelli, who, however, secured direct access to Q2

Photo: MotoGP, Franco Morbidelli