Marcel Schrötter had plenty of time to stew during the 18-hour flight from Prague to Suzuka, Japan, where he is currently competing in the World Endurance Championship. However, his third-place finish in the first EURO MOTO Superbike race in Most last Sunday was revoked. He must return the trophy. And in the second race as well, the 33-year-old BMW rider from Team GERT56 by RS Speedbikes received a severe penalty. Here are the facts of how it all came about.
In the first race, a contact-heavy incident occurred on the second lap involving Lukas Tulovic (Triple M Ducati Racing Frankfurt). Schrötter failed to hold his line, took the emergency exit, cut across the chicane, and rejoined the race behind Tulovic. According to the rules, to avoid gaining an advantage by cutting the corner, the rider must have slowed down by one second in the first sector of the track. Schrötter finished the race in third place. The Apreco-Yamaha team filed a protest, alleging that Schrötter had not followed the rules. At 12:58 p.m., Schrötter was asked via the Discord information portal to provide a statement to the race commissioners. When the BMW rider had not responded four hours later, the protest decision was made in his absence. Schrötter received a 3-second penalty. As a result, he dropped two places in the standings. The GERT56 by RS Speedbikes team appealed the sports commissioners’ decision. Twan Smits (Team Apreco-Yamaha) was classified third.
In the second race, both Schrötter and Hannes Soomer (Masteroil Alpha Van Zon BMW) failed to make the first turn right at the start. Schrötter was immediately given a 3-second penalty because he was found to have rejoined the field too quickly. He finished the race weekend with two fifth-place finishes. He remains in second place in the overall standings with 96 points. Lukas Tulovic leads with 129 points.