MotoGP change penalty point system after Rossi punishment

MotoGP have moved to change the way they award penalty points, in the aftermath of Valentino Rossi’s punishment for the collision between him and Marc Marquez at Sepang.

Rossi was awarded three points at Sepang, which joined his one existing point awarded at Misano and set to expire in September. However, under the old regulations, the accumulation of a further single point between Misano and the remaining three points expiring in October would have resulted in a further back-of-the-grid penalty for the Italian.

However, under the new rules, the nine-time champion (and any other rider in a similar situation) will now have to gather an additional four points on top of their three before a further punishment is doled out – in this case, a pit lane start.

With the system designed to punish riders for individual incidents and not to repeatedly sanction them for the same offence, the new regs are an attempt by race control to  implement the points in the manner they were designed to.