Joan Mir has received a long lap penalty after a crash with his Honda teammate Luca Marini during the sprint race at the Valencia Grand Prix. The accident happened on the second lap of the sprint, when Mir was trying to recover from a very bad start. He began the race from tenth place and was pushing hard to move up the order.

Mir tried to pass Marini on the inside going into a corner. While attempting the move, the front wheel of his bike slipped away. This caused Mir to fall, and his sliding bike also hit Marini, sending both riders into the gravel. Neither rider was able to continue the sprint after the crash.

The MotoGP FIM stewards looked carefully at the crash. After checking the footage and the data, they decided Mir was responsible for the contact. As a result, the stewards gave him a long lap penalty that he must complete in Sunday’s main race. This penalty will make his race more difficult, as riding through the long lap loop usually costs a few seconds.

This is the first time all season that Mir has been given a penalty. Only about an hour before the decision, Mir told reporters that he was not worried about a possible punishment. He said that the corner where the crash happened is a normal place for overtaking. He added that he simply lost the front and did not intend to hit Marini.

Mir explained, “I’m not very worried. This corner is not impossible for overtaking. I lost the front of the bike, and sadly I hit Luca. If this gets a penalty, then nobody will want to overtake anymore.”

However, the penalty comes at a difficult moment for Honda. The team needs to score nine points on Sunday to move into a new concession category. If Honda moves into this category, it will lose several important technical advantages, including the ability to freely develop its engine and to run extra testing days with its riders.

Despite this, Mir said that nobody in the Honda team wants the new concession. The team believes that losing these benefits will make it harder to improve the bike next season. The next Honda rider on the starting grid is Johann Zarco from the LCR team, who will line up in 11th place.