Sachsenring Review: One book to rule them all

Let’s have a look at the result of the German MotoGP at Sachsenring this weekend:

• 1 very smiley winning Spaniard
• 1 irritated not-winning Spaniard who’s missing the attention
• 1 frosty team relationship rivaling any soap opera
• 1 half-recovered audience favourite wowing the masses
• 2 riders severly injured
• 2 bikes going up in flames
• 2 sessions red-flagged
• 2 teams mildly pissed off
• Thousands of fans utterly pissed off
• 1 rule book that desperately needs some looking after

Did I miss something?

So the German GP is already history, the riders and teams from the small classes now have their well-deserved summer break and the big class only has one more race at Laguna Seca next weekend before they can get some rest too. For Randy De Puniet and Aleix Espargaro it will be a time used to recover from their injuries sustained in Sunday’s race. For the powers that be it might hopefully be a time to take a good look at the current rule book and smack a bit more sense into it. Because, frankly, the way we’ve seen it in action after the red flag in the MotoGP race was almost farcical.

The bike of Randy De Puniet still lying on the track after his crash in lap 9 caught out both Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista, who was swerving to avoid Randy, leaving their bikes destroyed and Aleix also in considerable pain with what later turned out to be a broken vertebra, a cut to his knee and a wrist contusion. De Puniet had broken his leg in the incident and was unfit to participate in the second race.
However, Bautista and Espargaro quickly returned to pitlane where their teams already worked frantically to get the spare bikes changed from wet to dry settings and both were determined to restart the race, especially Bautista who luckily escaped the crash without any injuries.
But at that moment article 1.25.1 of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Regulations came into play:

Within 5 minutes after the red flag has been displayed, riders who have not entered the pit lane, riding on their motorcycle, will not be classified.

Looking at that quote, there are obviously a couple of points neither of the riders could follow.
1) The bikes were trashed, making it impossible for either one to enter pit lane on their bikes.
2) Even though both riders did come back into pit lane in time, their bikes were still out on track.

What this meant was that both were ruled out of the second race before it even started. While it was probably a blessing in disguise for Espargaro, it was more than frustrating for Bautista and his entire team. Oh, and his fans. And the viewers. And the spectators at the track. Just so you get the whole picture.

Now, rules are rules and should be followed, not broken. We saw this in full effect last time out in the Moto2 race at Catalunya where Andrea Iannone passed under yellow, which is a potentially dangerous rule break because those yellow flags are indeed there for a reason, then he failed to comply with the easy rule to “give back” the position he gained which would have even enabled him to retake it immediately and then consequently got a ride through penalty which saw him relegated from 1st to 13th in the end. Lots of people complained about him being robbed of the win and the rule being opaque, but neither is true. It’s a remarkably easy and fair rule and allegedly he even knew that he was supposed to drop back a position, but instead decided to stay where he was, take the win and then “talk it out with the stewards” later. This is not how it works and he should know that.

So, I’m not saying that race administration should have made an exception for Bautista and Espargaro after the red flag in Germany even though they tried to convince them otherwise. It’s correct to go through with the rules. But what must have been obvious for everyone involved is that this particular rule needs some revision.
Word is that the rule originally was introduced to keep riders who caused a red flag from joining the re-started race. But there are some fundamental logical problems if this rule is supposed to be the solution to that problem.

1. The rider causing the red flag doesn’t necessarily have to have a trashed bike and could still be able to return to pit lane on his bike in time. The rule then wouldn’t affect him at all, causing itself to be completely ineffective.
2. At the same time, riders involved in the red flag-causing incident through no fault of their own but with destroyed bikes would be unable to participate in the second race while the causer of it all goes back out on track.

Clearly this can’t be what was intended with the rule. And the effect of it on Sunday was devastating for the people involved. When the riders get back in time, are fit to race, have a spare bike to use for the re-start and have not been the cause of the crash but are still denied participation in the second race it simply seems like an unjust penalty given to innocent victims for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. And as Rizla Suzuki team manager Paul Denning rightly pointed out “with only 17 bikes on the grid it is definitely a problem for the show to have fit riders and good bikes sat in the pit after an incident like that when they should be out there racing.” The second race was started with only 13 riders and Mika Kallio went into the gravel in the first corner, leaving only 12 riders to actually see the chequered flag. All the while there were two riders sitting in their boxes, willing to race.

Photos: motogp.com