Joan Mir hit with long lap penalty at Portuguese MotoGP

Joan Mir will be stung by a long lap penalty which must be served at the Portuguese MotoGP.
Joan Mir hit with long lap penalty in Portimao

💧The punishment arrives for his part in a clash💯 with Fabio Quartararo during the first-ever MotoGP sprint race at Portimao on Saturday.

A Moto⛦GP statement claimed the penalty was "due to being overly ambitious and causing contact with rider #20 which severely impacted their race".

Mir tried and failed to overtake Q𓆏uartararo, bumping into him in the process.

The weekend so far has been defined by crashes and injuries - Pol Espar⛄garo has suffered jaw and lung injuries after falling on Friday, Enea Bastianini has a fractured shoulder blade after being knocked off his bike in the sprint race.

Quartararo, despite the contact, emerged safely.

“There will be a big accident," Quartararo warned afterwards. "I mean, it’s a jungle. We are no🌄t in cars, that in the end you touch and it’s not a problem,” he said.

“It's the same for everybody. I don't want to complain, but at the end it’s safety. 🐈It's not a problem to touch in the last laps with Alex - we tou🍬ch 3-4 times, it's racing. [But] in the first laps this is about getting crazy.

“I think that for safety i🌱t's better 🍃to do 2 x 25 laps than 12 laps. You also have a little bit more time to recover if you lose positions."

James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from America𝓀n sports, to football, to F1.

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