At the start of Saturday’s delayed 11-lap sprint at the Buddh International Circuit, five riders ended up tangling into Turn 1.
VR46 Ducati duo Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini collided into Turn 1, with the latter suffering a broken collarbone while his polesitting team-mate was forced to recover to fifth.
At the same time as this incident, LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl touched the back of Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez, which sent the former crashing into the sister Tech3 GasGas of Pol Espargaro.
This is the third time in four races that there has been a pile-up into Turn 1 in a race, after similar wrecks at the start of the Catalan GP and the Austrian GP sprint.
Marini has since been handed a long lap penalty for his collision with Bezzecchi, which he will serve at the next grand prix in which he is fit enough to participate in, having been ruled out of the Indian GP.
However, this punishment is the standard one for causing such an incident, with Enea Bastianini awaiting to serve a long lap for his Barcelona Turn 1 pile-up and Pramac’s Jorge Martin serving one in the Austrian GP.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro – who got disrupted by the Turn 1 chaos in the Indian GP sprint – says harsher penalties need to be dished out to dissuade these incidents.
“The solution – there is a very easy, easy solution,” he began.
“Strong penalties on corner one. I say it in every single safety commission. Stronger [penalty].
“Very strong. We will see everyone brake earlier, you will see. You just brake earlier, it’s easy.”
Source: Autosport