Insight: HRC on Penalty

Lewis PhillipsNovember 7, 20210

The title fight in the 2021 FIM Motocross World Championship reached a turning point earlier today. Tim Gajser, the rider who has captured the last two titles in the premier division, got handed a five-place penalty at the end of the first moto. Gajser got bumped off of the track exiting turn one and entered the track after the exit to turn two. Although he slowed down, the FIM deemed that he did indeed gain an advantage (the penalty was for four spots that he gained plus an additional position). The official word on the penalty is below.

“Loss of 5 positions penalty for accidentally leaving the track and gaining an advantage.”

It was a significant blow for Gajser, who went from third in the moto to eighth (a difference of seven points). A third was then secured in the second stint as well. 15 points is the difference between him and the championship leader, Romain Febvre, with one round remaining. Gajser is 12 points down on Herlings in the runner-up spot. It is not impossible for him to leapfrog both riders and gain his third title in succession, but he’s going to need some help.

“I am very disappointed with how today turned out,” Gajser said in a statement from Team HRC. “In race one, I got hit by another rider and that caused me to go out of the track and, because of the way the track is designed, the safest place to get back on is where I went. I believed I was just outside the top five when I went out, and tried to re-join in the similar position, so as not to gain an advantage, but when I finished the race in third I was told that I had a five-position penalty. It is not nice to have to try and come back from that when the championship points are so tight.”