Sepang Racing’s Fabio Quartararo has revealed that he was unaware of a track limits warning which eventually cost him a podium at MotoGP’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The French rider finished the race in third but was later demoted to fourth after running over the green track limits area on the exit of the final corner.
The stewards had given him three warnings before handing out the penalty, but Quartararo only knew about one of them.
Quartararo said: “First of all, I’m very happy about my race because it’s important after all the weekends we’ve struggled to finally finish in third position.
“In the end, we got the penalty for track limits but I should’ve received a message for a track limits warning and I never got one, so it was a surprise.”
Admitting to being unaware of two of the three warnings, Quartararo added: “It’s true: I got three warnings but the last two I didn’t know about.
“I’m just disappointed and frustrated to have this penalty”, he said.
With his focus firmly on the next race in Barcelona, Quartararo believes that they can improve on their pace, although mentions that playing second-fiddle to Pol Espargaro and Joan Mir was not easy.
“I’m looking forward to Barcelona and it’s good that we had good pace. It was difficult to overtake Pol, and Joan caught us but it’s good to finally end the race in a good way.”