For years the Race Direction has been more or less lackadaisical in judging racing incidents, but in these last few rounds they’ve become much more present, first wanting to investigate the marshalls handling of the Valentino Rossi – Casey Stoner incident at Jerez, then the Marco Simoncelli – Dani Pedrosa incident at Le Mans where the Italian was given a ride-through penalty and then called by the Race Direction this weekend to make sure that he understood why he had been punished.
Today in the 125cc class we saw Johann Zarco get his victory stripped away from him with a 20 second penalty after he elbowed Nico Terol on to the grass at the last corner and now they want to investigate Kenan Sofuoglu–Julian Simon incident that happened during the Moto2 race.
The accident began when Sofuoglu clipped the rear wheel of Simon on lap 16.
The Spaniard highsided and the Turkish rider ran off track but was unable to avoid hitting the tumbling Aspar rider.
Sofuoglu apologized for the incident saying that he misjudged Simon’s speed into the corner, but Simon would be later diagnosed with a fractured tibia and fibula in his right leg, and will undergo surgery later this evening in Madrid, while Sofuoglu was also sent to the hospital to check out his wrist that he had previously broken.
Our take is that it was a racing incident with an unfortunate outcome, but apparently the Race Direction wants to know more (as if they don’t already know what happened, having seen it at least dozen times for all the angles) so they have organized a inquisition, excuse me a hearing to be held at Silverstone next week, even though it’s very doubtful that Simon will be present.
The statement reads as follows:“Following the collision between Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) and Julian Simon (ESP), the Race Direction has decided to organise a hearing.
Both riders being currently in hospital for treatment, the hearing will be held on Thursday 9 June at 16h00.
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