MotoGP | Barcelona GP: Long Lap Penalty rules change

MotoGP – On the occasion of the Catalan Grand Prix, seventh stage of the 2019 MotoGP, some sanctions were revised, in particular the Long Lap Penalty.

Introduced at the start of this season, the Long Lap Penalty consists of a 'lane' usually located on the outside of some corners, where drivers must pass to serve penalties. Since the beginning of the season, it has been used little in MotoGP, but things will change from now on.

Until now it has often been used as a method to sanction those who exceeded the track limits too many times during the race, but from the GP to Montmelò it will also be used to sanction those who cut corners. Before this decision, in the event of a cut, drivers had to lose at least one second compared to the average time in the sector, otherwise they were sanctioned with a time penalty which was added at the end of the race. To avoid 'distorting' the results after the checkered flag, now either you lose at least one second in the sector or you will have to serve a Long Lap Penalty within three laps, otherwise the penalty will become a Ride Through.

The change in the regulations comes after what happened at the Canadian Formula 1 GP, where Sebastian Vettel was penalized after the checkered flag for having re-entered the track in an unsafe manner, thus losing the victory not with a battle between the curbs, but after the checkered flag. Probably FIM and Dorna, seeing the fuss of controversy generated by the incident, decided for a change of rules that defines the result under the checkered flag and not after.