(WITHDRAWN by the FIM) Márquez is penalised by Race Direction

Not long ago we reported the Race Direction penalty for the Moto2 World Championship rider, Marc Márquez for his contact with Pol Espargaró at the fifth round of the championship, held today at the Circuit de Catalunya. Now things have changed again: in less than an hour, Márquez has gone from 3rd to 24th in the general classification of the race at the Catalan circuit.

Apparently, after the penalty was communicated to the CatalunyaCaixa team of Emilio Alzamora, the team decided to appeal the decision to the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, which has now definitively decided to withdraw the penalty imposed on Márquez. He therefore recovers the podium at the Circuit de Catalunya and his 16 points.The FIM Stewards have decided that it is not a penalisable situation, and have therefore withdrawn the penalty imposed by Race Direction on the 93, returning everything to how it stood before the penalty announcement.

• PENALTY WITHDRAWN.

After the Moto2 race, in which, with three laps to go, we saw Marc Márquez and Pol Espargaró make contact, and the Granollers rider was the more affected as he went down and took a good knock, we were already told that at the end of the MotoGP race the incident would be studied by Race Direction, which would take statements from both riders.

Everything happened with 3 laps remaining until the end of the race. Iannone, Lüthi, Márquez and Espargaró were fighting for victory when, under heavy braking, Márquez lost control of his bike and managed to avoid the crash at the last moment by putting his elbow down. As he rejoined the line through the corner, he hit Pol, who was following his line and trying to take advantage of Marc’s mistake to go third.

Márquez, as soon as he arrived in parc fermé after securing third place, told the television cameras that he considered that, having been hit by Pol who was behind him, he was not responsible for the crash, but that he still publicly apologised for the action. Espargaró, after visiting the medical centre, preferred not to make statements, reserving himself for his meeting with the stewards.

Shortly after the meeting held between both parties and Race Direction, a one-minute penalty for Marc Márquez was announced for breaching article 1.21.2 of the World Championship regulations “…riding in a way that endangers the other riders…”. It should also be said that Márquez had already been warned about the incident in Qatar with Thomas Lüthi, so any action by the Cervera rider was going to be scrutinised closely.

This one-minute penalty, which may be excessive, only makes sense if its purpose was to ensure that Márquez did not score points in the race, since in this way he finishes 23rd, on the same number of points as Pol Espargaró. That is to say, none. Each of us may have our own interpretation of what this one-off action was, but in a category as close as Moto2, we may see many penalties from now on, and only learn the final race classification hours after it has ended.

Among the riders who have commented on the actions of Márquez and Espargaró, Casey Stoner stands out, who wrote on Twitter: “I can’t believe Márquez has been penalised with a minute. Another reason why this championship needs a change. I have seen much worse actions.” Also Valentino Rossi commented at his press conference: “Márquez is not to blame. Pol had no room at that point.”

I think, as I said before, each of us has our own opinion on how we saw the incident, and from what I can read now on the timeline of my Twitter feed, the debate is very heated with radically different positions depending on each person. We will see the consequences it brings in the future, because without a doubt, this is not over yet.

Tito Rabat moves up to third place on the podium, achieving his first of the season. As for the Spanish riders, Nico Terol scores 2 points by finishing 14th, and the clear beneficiary is Jordi Torres, who takes one point by finishing 15th on his debut as a replacement for Simeón in the Tech3 team.

Photos | motogp.com