Francesco Bagnaia: Why I’d have escaped ride-through penalty at COTA

If the original COTA MotoGP start had gone ahead, Francesco Bagnaia believes he'd have been in a much better situation penalty-wise compared to rivals Marc and Alex Marquez.

Bagnaia and Alex were among many to follow in Marc’s footsteps when he dramatically ditched his wet bike on the grid and dashed into pit lane for his dry machine.

Like most riders and team members, Marquez didn’t realise his actions would result in a ride-through penalty, thinking he would merely start from the back of the grid.

However, no punishments were ultimately applied since the start was delayed on safety grounds due to the chaos - most notably team members and guests trapped between the track and bikes rushing along pit lane - and a new 'quickstart' procedure was initiated.

The three riders who most obviously lost out due to the delay were those ready to start from the grid on slicks: Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Ai Ogura.

Meanwhile, those who fled the grid should have faced the following:

'If you leave the grid before the warm up lap and change the type of tyres* (rain-slick), you start the warm up lap from pit lane, take your qualifying grid position, and serve a ride through penalty in the race.'

However on Thursday in Qatar, Bagnaia revealed he would also have escaped a ride-through penalty.

That’s due to the asterisk (*) in the rules defining, ‘change the type of tyres’ as: ‘compared to the tyres used on the sighting lap (when a different bike is used to start the race).’

Bagnaia revealed he had used slick tyres for the COTA sighting lap, then switched to wet tyres on the grid.

Therefore, although he was leaving the grid and changing bikes (which means a lesser back-of-the-grid start penalty) he was not changing the type of tyres compared to those on the sighting lap.

“From me, it was the best scenario to see either Marc or Alex going from the grid because I was the only one [of us] that if the rules were applied would not get a ride through,” Bagnaia said.

“I would just have to start from the back of the grid because I was the one that did the sighting lap with slick tyres.

“I was already on the correct tyres [on the sighting lap], so I didn't have to do any ride through in the race.

“So in case the rules were applied, I was in a better scenario compared to them.

“But then the chaos was there, and they decided to put red flags."

Bagnaia backed the decision of Race Direction to halt the start.

"That was surely the best thing to do, also considering that the track maybe wasn't ready to go with the slick.

“But in a normal [start] situation I was having the better scenario compared to them.”

Bagnaia went on to win the restart after Marc Marquez crashed from the lead. Alex Marquez took over at the top of the world championship with another second place.

Ahead of this weekend’s Qatar event, MotoGP announced:

“After the unprecedented circumstances at the start of the Americas GP, which led to a quick start procedure being implemented due to safety concerns, MotoGP is working with the teams to revisit the regulations.”