For Jorge Martin, it was a smooth Tissot Sprint at the Gran Premio Estrella Galicia 0,0 where he extended his lead in the Championship. Rookie Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) finished second and achieved his first-ever Sprint Podium in front of an enthusiastic Jerez crowd. Fabio Quartararo initially also celebrated Podium 3, but a tire pressure regulation penalty made his race time increase by 8 seconds and dropped him to fifth. And it pushed MotoGP legend and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing wildcard Daniel Pedrosa to third on the Podium.
In fact, it wasn’t just Quartararo himself who received this tire pressure penalty. It was recorded that 5 racers were sentenced to an addition of 8 seconds to their race time in the Sprint. the other four racers were Alex Rins, Raul Fernandez, Jack Miller, and Fabio Digiananntonio and made many changes to the final race results as follows
Yes, apart from the five racers above who experienced a drop in position, several other racers also received increases in position, such as Morbidelli, Marc Marquez, Augusto Fernandez, Oliveira and Joan Mir.
The new minimum pressure regulation for MotoGP class tires in the 2024 season is generally reduced from 1.88 bar to 1.80 bar or a decrease of 0.08 bar (1.16 Psi). This will indeed provide freedom for racers and teams to prepare the initial conditions for tire pressure during the race.
However, the regulations require a new condition, namely that the racer’s pressure must remain above this threshold for 60% of the main race (GP) lap duration, compared to 50% in 2023. Meanwhile for the Sprint Race, the racer must remain above this threshold for the entire duration. 30% of the race lap duration or Above 4 laps in the 12 Lap Jerez Sprint race.
