A meeting made up of Carmelo Ezpeleta, Paul Duparc (FIM), Hervé Poncharal (IRTA) and Biense Bierma (MSMA) has officially given birth to a new scoring method with immediate effect in the MotoGP World Championship.
Until now, if a race had a red flag, the conclusive result was stipulated by the lap in which all the drivers had last crossed the finish line.
This meant that if a driver or drivers were half a lap or more behind the race leader, the race classification was recorded from the previous lap, even if the race leader and most drivers had completed the next lap.
This method originally emerged to prevent any driver from trying to “take advantage” during the last lap. In this way, from the moment the flag began to wave, the current lap was systematically cancelled , resuming the race or scoring according to the classification of the previous lap.
However, after a meeting made up of the highest representatives of the championship, from now on, the result and the consequent qualifying process of a race with a red flag will vary significantly.
Starting next March 6, those drivers who cross the finish line on the same lap as the leader before the red flag will qualify, in that order, as a partial classification.
Otherwise, those drivers who do not cross the finish line on the same lap as the leader before the red flag is shown will be ranked based on where they crossed the finish line on the previous lap, and these two partial classifications will be combined to obtain the final result of the race.
We remember that, while a red flag is waving, all drivers are obliged to slow down and return to the pits as soon as possible.
