MotoGP announce new sporting regulations concerning red-flag conditions

The 2022 MotoGP season will have new sporting regulations as it relates to race results under red-flag conditions. 

In the event of a red-flag halting proceedings, The Grand Prix Commission has announced that an official race result will now be taken from the last time the race leader crosses the start-finish line prior to the red-flag being deployed.

This new regulation means the previous rule where every rider must cross the finish line in order to have an official race classification - therefore leading to the result being taken from an entire lap before is now null and void. 

An official statement from The Grand Prix Commission stated: "Previously, if a race was red flagged and a final result declared, the result was taken from the lap on which all riders had last crossed the finish line. If a rider or several riders were half a lap or more behind the race leader, this caused the race classification to be taken from the previous lap, even when the race leader and the majority of the field had completed the next lap. In these cases, any position changes or crashes on the race leader’s final lap were rendered moot.

"Effective immediately, the result of a red flagged race will now be taken from the last time the race leader crosses the finish line before the red flag is shown. All riders who cross the finish line on the same lap as the leader before the red flag will be classified in that order, as a partial classification.

"Any riders who do not cross the finish line on the same lap as the leader before the red flag is shown will be classified based on where they crossed the finish line on the previous lap.

"These two partial classifications will be combined to provide the final race result.

"This system previously applied to races that were red flagged after the race leader had taken the chequered flag, and will now apply to all red flagged races for which a final result is declared."

Following two pre-season tests at Sepang and Mandalika in which Enea Bastianini and Pol Espargaro were quickest, MotoGP riders will next be on-track in ten days time for FP1 in Losail, Qatar.