Yamaha technicians made a blunder: Fabio Quartararo was knocked out of the points following a penalty

The Yamaha MotoGP works team endured a nightmare Grand Prix on British soil: zero points. After finishing well down the field in the Sprint race, Alex Rins crashed out early in the Grand Prix. Fabio Quartararo fought on bravely and at least managed to hang on to the tail of Franky Morbidelli’s VR46 Ducati from last season.

‘El Diablo’ crossed the line in 12th place, 26 seconds behind the winner. Still, that was an improvement, as the Frenchman had retired whilst leading in his last appearance just over a year ago. The modest joy at scoring four points lasted just over two hours. Then the MotoGP Technical Commission announced a penalty for the Yamaha with start number 20.

The official statement reads: “After the race had finished, the motorcycle was summoned to the technical inspection for examination. During the inspection, it emerged that the on-board receiver had not been correctly configured to receive tyre pressure data from the front tyre sensor. The sensor ID was not stored in the receiver’s database, which meant that no actual data on the front tyre was recorded during the race.”

In short: Quartararo was not penalised, as is usually the case, for under-inflation, but for a failure to transmit tyre pressure data. The Yamaha team’s offence was dealt with rigorously, resulting in a 16-second time penalty.

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The revised results sheet thus placed the future Honda rider in 16th place, behind Miller, Espargaro, Razgatlioglu and Fernandez. Test rider Augusto Fernandez picked up the final World Championship point. Fabio Quartararo, as in the previous year, left the track physically unscathed but as a victim of the technical department. In the World Championship standings, the 2021 champion sits in 14th place, just one point ahead of Honda rookie Diogo Moreira.