The Grand Prix Commission has made changes to the sporting code ahead of the Austrian MotoGP weekend to clarify the sequence of events should P2 be cancelled on Friday.
The GPC – composed of series organisers Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, Paul Duparc from the FIM as well as series team’s representative Herve Poncharal amongst others – changed the way that rider’s qualified for the pole shootout ahead of the British Grand Prix.
Prior to the summer break both FP1 and FP2 counted towards who would progress directly to Saturday’s pole shootout session, though due to concerns of the intense nature of each weekend this was changed so that only the re-named P2 session would decide the ten riders who would qualify for Q2.
The GPC has now moved to clarify what would happen should the afternoon session be cancelled for whatever reason, the organisation explaining that the FP1 outing would instead be re-classified as P1 and thus the classification from this test would be used to decide the pole shootout line-up.
Should neither practice outing go ahead as scheduled on Friday, this would be classed a force majeure and Race Direction has the power to “adjust the procedure and schedule as required.”
The changes to the procedure of deciding who enters Q2 directly came following calls from riders that each weekend forced them to push too hard in every session, thus increasing the chance of sustaining injury – with the expanded 2023 calendar as a result of the newly-established Sprint Race format not helping matters.
Six of the 20 full-time riders taking part this season have so far had to miss at least one event, with Alex Rins – who sustained a broken leg in the Italian GP sprint race – currently the only one remaining on the sidelines.
