MotoGP points leader Bezzecchi banned from Czech GP

MotoGP championship leader Marco Bezzecchi has been banned from the Czech Grand Prix at Brno for striking a marshal following his crash out of the sprint.

Bezzecchi was due to start Sunday's race in fourth place but will now be forced onto the sidelines, as the MotoGP field is reduced to 20 bikes (following also Alex Marquez's injury withdrawal).

Aprilia has indicated it will appeal the decision.

Onboard footage from Bezzecchi's bike after the sprint crash shows that, having fallen and initially been in no rush to his Aprilia knowing that his sprint race was over, he then dashed over to it to hit the kill switch and prevent damage to the engine after one of the marshals trying to pick it up accidentally grabbed the throttle and caused the bike to rev.

First shoving the marshal out of the way in order to deactivate his machine, Bezzecchi then appears to strike him as the marshal (caught on the mic from the onboard camera) explains that he was only trying to pick the bike up.

A subsequently-released shot from a different angle showed that Bezzecchi put his right hand on the marshal's face when pushing him away initially, then seemingly slapped him.

The race ban is a catastrophic outcome for Bezzecchi, whose 20-point lead over team-mate Jorge Martin is set to be whittled down significantly - even with Martin himself set to serve a double long lap penalty.

Equally concerning to him - and more concerning to Aprilia - will be that the recovering Marc Marquez is in prime position to take another massive chunk out of Bezzecchi's points buffer, having already made considerable progress over the past couple of weeks.

The altercation isn't the first time that Bezzecchi has found himself in hot water with the stewards for a physical altercation with track workers, after the then-MotoGP rookie was fined €1,000 for grabbing and pushing a marshal at the 2022 Valencian Grand Prix.

Crashing on the out lap of FP3 in a crash that brought out the red flags when his VR46-run Ducati burst into flames, he shoved a marshal carrying a fire extinguisher towards the bike.

In handing him his penalty, the stewards, then led by former world champion Freddie Spencer, called Bezzecchi's actions "detrimental to the interest of the sport" in "making physical contact with a marshal in an aggressive and unprofessional manner".

Bezzecchi later travelled to the corner to apologise in person to the marshal involved.

The last significant incident involving a rider and marshals having a trackside altercation came last year at the French Grand Prix when local hero Fabio Quartararo remonstrated with track workers on the exit of the Bugatti circuit's last corner to help him bump start his crashed Yamaha.

He was fined €2000 and suspended from the first 10 minutes of the following race weekend's opening session for disobeying marshals' instructions to allow them to remove the bike from its dangerous location.