In recent races, Alex Marquez has often found himself at the center of discussions due to the accidents he was involved in in MotoGP. In Aragon there was a lot of talk about his contact with Pecco Bagnaia, which occurred at the end of the long race, when the two were fighting for the lowest step of the podium.
The world champion had tried to take advantage of a long shot from the Gresini Racing driver to pass him on the outside of the next corner, before the crossing of the lines led to a disastrous fall for both. Bagnaia had initially accused Alex of deliberately causing the accident, only to later apologize after the Race Direction decided not to take action against both.
At Motegi, the Spaniard once again found himself in the eye of the storm due to an accident that occurred on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix with Joan Mir. Alex hit the Honda rider at turn 12 and his Ducati got stuck between the tail and the rear tire of the RC213V, starting a potentially very dangerous dynamic, from which both fortunately got up without any particular consequences, however.
Mir did not hide his anger at what happened: “Obviously no one wants to hit anyone. But sometimes we drivers have to think about what we do, because it didn’t go well for him or me. Due to his bad management, the the race was ruined for me too. So now the one who should be most angry is me. It’s not a race accident. When you have a rider in front and you hit him for no reason… Maybe the Race Direction is asleep, I don’t know what they’re looking at it’s annoying.”
Joan Mir, Repsol Honda Team, Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo credit: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
This time, however, the Race Direction did not sleep, because it decided to sanction Marquez’s maneuver, who will have to serve a Long Lap Penalty in the long race of the next event in which he will take part which, barring surprises, will be the Australian Grand Prix which will be held at Phillip Island in 14 days.
“According to the penalty protocol given to the teams, this action is considered an incident of the MGP-CC4 type: ‘Causing an accident. A contact with another rider resulting in the crash of the other rider’. Being the first infringement of the season , the most appropriate penalty in this case is a Long Lap Penalty”, explains the note from the stewards’ panel.
For his part, Alex Marquez said he was disappointed by the decision, underlining that in his opinion the commissioners confirmed themselves as unfair in their decisions: “We will have to do a long lap penalty, even if I don’t agree: seven days ago in turn 3 another rider touched me in the same way and nothing was done. It shows that the rules are not the same for everyone, but we will make a virtue of it”, said Alex, referring to the strike made by Jack Miller at the start of the race. Mandalika, which in addition to the two of them also involved Luca Marini and Aleix Espargaro.
However, the driver from Cervera also admitted that he had made a mistake, apologizing to his compatriot: “I made a mistake at turn 11 which made me go a little off line and in an attempt to get back into my position I came into contact with Mir who he made me fall. Our bikes hooked up and I apologize to him for putting him out of the race.”
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