Binder penalty: “I had no idea, but rules are rules” | Luca Marini: “I was hit"

As with any such infringement on the last lap, when there is no time for a rider to serve the penalty, Binder received 3-seconds added to his race time.

That meant after holding third for almost the entire race and having kept Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro at bay in the closing stages, he was demoted to fifth.

“Unfortunately, in the race I somehow missed on my dashboard that I had a [track limits] warning already, so I had no idea that I had already touched the green [there],” Binder said.

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“I got back to the box and I said to my team, what's going on? What did I do? And they said I'd touched the green. And honestly, I was still 100% sure I hadn't touched it once.

“But when I went up to the Stewards, I could see where I'd touched. And unfortunately those couple of millimetres - I was just jumping over the tiniest little piece, but I didn't even notice.

“It is what it is, the rules are the rules, and I'll give it a bit more margin tomorrow.

“I think all three [infringements] were exactly the same, it was that little bit going across the kerbs. And I never realised I was [doing it], that's the problem.

“But anyway, it is what it is. The rules are the rules, so if you nick it, you nick it. I need to take this one and … yeah, f**k, what can you do?”

Penalty aside, Binder was delighted with the set-up progress made on his RC16 and is now hoping for some more drive onto the straights for Sunday.

"Honestly, I was so stoked to ride my bike this morning and feel what they'd changed. I've had huge issues with front locking the last few races – well, the whole year actually – and they've made that a whole lot better, and then they found something else that gave me a lot more rear grip.

"So I felt so good on my bike, and I need to improve two points tomorrow, and I think we can do really well. Those are onto the main straight and onto the back straight... When I'm on full throttle and don't feel like I'm going forward. I'm getting murdered there!

"If we can fix that, I think we can be in for a good main race."

Marini: ‘I was hit, I don't understand the penalty’

Binder wasn’t the only rider to lose positions after the flag with Luca Marini dropping from eighth to tenth after receiving a +0.5s sanction for a shortcut through the final chicane.

But the VR46 Ducati rider, who had been in a tight battle with Enea Bastianini and Alex Marquez, insisted he had been forced off line after being hit 'from behind'.

Replays showed contact between Marini and Bastianini as the factory rider tried to pass him on the inside, after which Marini straight-lined the middle apex.

“The penalty is because another rider hit me in the last corner, braking on the last lap. I didn't see him, so I don't know who it was. I was just trying not to crash. And I cut the chicane,” said Marini, whose team-mate Marco Bezzecchi won the race.

“I don't understand the penalty sincerely, because it's not my mistake. I was just making my line. I got hit from behind. So I just tried to avoid crashing. And that's it.”

The penalty rubbed salt into the wounds of a disappointing race.

"Just very difficult to explain what happened today. This morning in qualifying and in FP3, I was not so strong, but OK. While it was a disaster riding the bike this afternoon," Marini said.

"I was struggling a lot, especially with the front tyre. A lot of understeering in the fast corners, a lot of closing in the front in the slow corners. So we need to understand the why and try to avoid this problem tomorrow."

Binder remains fifth in the world championship, but lost further points to title leader Francesco Bagnaia, with Marini in sixth heading into Sunday's main race.