On the first day of running at the Indian Grand Prix, a minor incident with big implications threatened to distract from the on-track action here on Friday.
Ahead of the first MotoGP Free Practice 1 (FP1) session, fans spotted a distorted Indian map, which left out areas from Jammu and Kashmir from the outline of the country, on the global broadcast feed.
Jammu and Kashmir has long been a contentious issue between India and its neighbour Pakistan, which also claims territorial sovereignty over a part of the Kashmir region.
After the backlash from social media users, MotoGP put out a statement to apologize for the mishap.
“We’d like to apologize to our fans in India for the map shown earlier as part of the MotoGP broadcast. It is never our intent to make any statement other than that of support and appreciation for our host country,” the statement read.
