ZIP IT FABIO!
● Yamaha ace’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ investigated ● Suit was in ‘working order’
There are many ways to lose a race – tyre degradation, machine problems, even (as Casey Stoner once said to Rossi) to “run out of talent”. Fabio Quartararo found a cruel new setback… wardrobe malfunction. He ran out of zip. Sunday’s clear race favourite had crossed the line third but ended up sixth. He was beaten not only by the fast and steadfast Oliveira, but also by a bizarre incident when his leathers mysteriously came open to the waist with five laps left. As a result, he suffered two time penalties that cost him six points. “I don’t know what happened – Alpinestars are investigating,” the disgruntled rider said. But his confusion left more puzzlement. Zips can burst open, but selfreleasing zips are not a familiar phenomenon, and he said himself that he’d been able to close the zip on the slow-down lap,
The unprecedented affair, highlighted when he was seen to remove and fling aside his chest-protector later on that lap, also left race management nonplussed. Usually quick to punish transgressions like the tiniest slip over track limits, the sanction for this clear breach of regulations came more than four hours after Quartararo had taken the chequered flag.
Race Director Mike Webb told MCN: “It was not necessarily a black flag situation. I decided against that and we were looking at other signals… and it became too late.” The race was over. The eventual three-second penalty was the Race Stewards’ estimation of “the amount of time he’d have lost closing the zip during the race,” said Webb. The rules state that protective clothing “must be worn, correctly fastened, at all times during on-track activity”. Quartararo had seemed set for a fourth win this year. Although 6mph down on Catalunya’s straight, the Monster Yamaha rider looked unbeatable on the fast corners and claimed an assured fifth straight pole as the best Yamaha, with Morbidelli and Viñales fifth and sixth. The drag to the first corner left him behind Miller’s Ducati and the KTM; but when he worked his way to the lead at half distance, the job seemed done until Oliveira used his speed to get back two laps later.
He shadowed the orange bike, and had a last-lap attack planned though he admitted the outcome was not certain. “I’d been saving my tyre, but Miguel was so strong.” Then with five laps to go, zipgate struck.
“Into the first corner, I had the leathers completely open.” How this had happened was not clear, though an airbag malfunction – constricting his breathing – was ruled out. Quartararo reacted resentfully on social media to suggestions that he was concealing his own responsibility, saying: “It’s great to see some people’s real faces.” He’d tried to close the zip, he said, then pulled his chest protector out, and was still fumbling. Lap-time analysis showed that he lost very little time, perhaps half-asecond, but this still allowed compatriot Zarco’s Ducati to blast past down the straight. Then as they started lap 22 Quartararo ran off at the first corner, to rejoin narrowly ahead of Miller, still in third. Failure to drop one place incurred a threesecond post-race penalty, dropping him to fourth. Worse followed. Among mutterings from rivals that he should have been black-flagged, the post-race stewards’ decision dropped him to sixth.