SBK, The FIM speaks: this is why we penalised Rea

Jonathan Rea's third place finish in race 1 lasted only a few hours and, after he had celebrated on the podium, the FIM Stewards Panel decided that he would have to drop a place and start today's Superpole race from last position.

Why the delay in making this decision? The International Motorcycling Federations outlines its reasons in an official press release. The FIM, in the release that we publish here in full, explains why it was unable to make a decision earlier and also reveals that the Yamaha team made an official protest against Rea.

“For 2019 the duties of the FIM World Superbike Race Direction has changed. Race Direction are responsible for operational matters, the FIM Stewards Panel are responsible for adjudicating infringements of the regulations and the issuing of sanctions.

On 8th June 2019, during the last lap of the FIM World Superbike Race 1 there was an incident at Turn 13 involving Riders #1 Jonathan Rea and #22 Alex Lowes, which resulted in the crash of Nr.22.

The incident was placed under investigation and shortly afterwards a protest was received against Rider Nr.1. The protesting party were advised that the matter was being investigated however chose to place an official protest.

The investigation required the FIM Stewards Panel to interview both riders in order to hear their view of the events. The interview with Rider #22 was delayed due to his requiring medical attention. Additional video footage also had to be sourced and examined to gather as complete a picture as possible of the events.

As the FIM World Supersport 300 race was taking place at the same time, both the FIM Stewards Panel and the Race Direction camera resources were engaged during this period. As such the additional video footage could only be sourced afterwards.

Having interviewed both riders and reviewed all available video footage, the FIM Stewards Panel convened to discuss the incident in detail, and reached the unanimous decision that the incident and subsequent crash of Rider #22 was a result of irresponsible riding on the part of Rider #1, according to Article 1.21.2 of the 2019 FIM World Superbike, World Supersport and World Supersport 300 regulations.

The penalty issued is considered to be commensurate with the seriousness of the incident."