The unseen collision between Fermin Aldeguer and Miguel Oliveira was a source of irritation for both riders, with Oliveira annoyed by the damage to his race and Aldeguer incredulous over the penalty.
Aldeguer was assessed a long lap penalty for Turn 7 contact with Oliveira on the sixth lap while in the fight for 13th place, but was surprised both by the penalty and by the fact it took as long as it did to be issued - with it converted in the end to a three-second equivalent after the finish, rather than being serve-able in-race.
"I don't know [what happened]," Aldeguer said.
"I have the penalty, now I go to race direction because nobody's told me anything, they only gave me the penalty. I don't know. We'll see. I overtook him in Turn 7, I didn't touch him, I didn't do nothing, we'll see what happens.
"I saw it on the screen - long lap for irresponsible riding, and afterwards 'long lap not complete'. But at no moment in the race did they issue the long lap or put me under investigation.
"It's strange. You have to inform the riders, the team. The race direction could've given me the long lap or told me to drop one position, I'd do it, it's OK. But I don't know."
In their ruling, the stewards described it as "an unfair manoeuvre against another rider that didn't result in a crash but caused an adverse effect (loss of multiple positions)".
The Race understands that what footage does exist of the move doesn't conclusively prove or disprove contact - but that it shows the last-second nature of Aldeguer's move means only Oliveira picking up the bike and consequently going all the way to the long lap loop located way on the outside of Turn 7.
Oliveira lost five positions in the contact but indicated he was always going to have a difficult race given, after set-up changes for the morning, his Yamaha hadn't reacted how he'd expected it to on the rear of the bike.
Of the contact, he said: "I was at Turn 7, already with my knee down. And Fermin just made some space where it didn't exist. And pushed me off."
Oliveira was injured earlier in the season in a collision with Aldeguer - which had also drawn a penalty for the rookie - but said there was nothing to discuss with the Gresini rider.
When told by The Race that Aldeguer said he hadn't felt the contact, Oliveira could only smirk sardonically: "Yeah. I'm sure he also didn't see me."
