After the crash in the Sprint of the GP of the Czech Republic, yesterday evening came another cold shower for Marco Bezzecchi: the Aprilia rider was disqualified for hitting a track attendant with a slap and was excluded from the Brno race. The attendant was lifting his Aprilia from the gravel after the fall on the penultimate lap, when Bezzecchi in his heat and frustration hit him twice with a slap.
The motorcycle was still running and the attendant tried to keep it accelerating. The Italian pilot might have wanted to turn it off, but certainly not to start again. The Stewards Panel sanctioned ‘Bez’s gesture with exclusion from the race as required by an article for any “action detrimental to the interests of competitions or sport, carried out by a person or group of people during an event”. The precedent from 2022 in Valencia may have had an impact when Bezzecchi yanked a marshall who was slow to intervene on his Ducati which had caught fire on the ground. Now the 27-year-old risks losing the lead in the world championship with teammate Jorge Martin just 15 points behind.