Yamaha fire dig at stewards: “Wrong information, poor level of professionalism”

After a podium reprieve in COTA thanks to Quartararo, Yamaha’s struggles in MotoGP 2023 continued at Jerez after both its riders were given controversial penalties.

Morbidelli was the first to receive a Long-Lap penalty for the Grand Prix after an incident with Alex Marquez on lap one of the Sprint race.

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Although the Italian was mainly responsible for himself and Marquez crashing, which then led to a big fall for Marco Bezzecchi after he was collected by the rider-less Gresini bike, Morbidelli was on the inside of Marquez as a small gap had appeared and the contact looked more like a racing incident than anything else. 

But the team’s appeal was thrown out, before Yamaha chose not to appeal a second time when Quartararo was caught between Bezzecchi and Miguel Oliveira.

Quartararo made slight contact with Bezzecchi before touching the side of Miguel Oliveira which caused the Aprilia rider to crash, as was the case for himself.  

Speaking to MotoGP.com, an angry Meregalli said: "We went to race direction because we didn’t really understand why they decided to penalise Fabio with a Long-lap. 

"After talking to them we are even more convinced that they made a mistake. They showed us the images and many different points of view and in the end they did not convince us that their decision was right. 

"I’m disappointed because, for sure, the race has been compromised from their decision. Yesterday, in my opinion they made another decision that was very, very appealable. 

"Apart from that we received information on the tv, wrong information. It has been a poor quality of professionalism."

Although Yamaha management felt as though they were in the right, appealing the first penalty was also an act of showing support to its riders, said Meregalli.

"Nothing will happen because these penalties are not appealable," added the team director. "Yesterday, we could appeal the penalty they gave to Franco because we believe they made a mistake and we really want to support our rider because we feel we had to do it. 

"We did not succeed and they rejected our appeal. For today, there is unfortunately nothing we can do. 

"They will also learn about their mistakes. I’m quite convinced that when we left race direction they were doubting what they decided."