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Marc Marquez has been handed a tyre stress penalty after MotoGP’s Dutch TT, demoting him from fourth to tenth.
Stewards mentioned the Gresini Ducati rider was operating “tyre pressures decrease than the parameters suggested by the official provider” Michelin and handed him a 16-second penalty.
However Marquez mentioned he was simply 0.01 bars below the restrict for one lap of the race – the one instantly following his contact with Ducati rider Enea Bastianini at Flip 1 – and blamed that incident for the penalty. He thinks meaning a rule tweak is required for the longer term.
The penalty promoted Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli to ninth, with Marquez slotting into the outcomes forward of KTM’s Jack Miller in eleventh.
Marquez mentioned although it was “a disgrace” to have acquired a penalty, “the foundations are the foundations”.
Marquez’s idea
Marquez had induced shock early within the race when he appeared to intentionally let VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio overtake him for third.
He confirmed afterwards that this had been an try to decrease his tyre stress.
“The one factor we had been discussing with the stewards, for that motive it delayed the penalty, as a result of as you noticed within the race I began in a great way however out of the blue I noticed on the entrance there was one thing unusual and the tyre stress was tremendous low,” Marquez defined.
“Then I let previous Diggia simply to manage the entrance stress, after which I used to be there behind him all of the race.”
However he mentioned the incident with Bastianini then spoiled that plan.
“I used to be controlling in a great way, I used to be inside, however what I didn’t anticipate was the contact from Enea on the first nook when he pushed me out,” he continued.
“And once I was out that lap I used to be one second slower and I didn’t push nicely in that Flip 3 and Flip 5 as a result of I didn’t understand how the tyre can be after coming from the run-off space. It dropped once more, it takes two laps to return again and people two laps makes me out of that minimal [pressure].”
Marquez mentioned the blended situations on Sunday, switching between cloudy and sunshine, made “the whole lot tough,” however he was controlling his tyre stress nicely earlier than the contact from Bastianini – one thing “I can’t management” which “makes me go large and are available again and the stress was too low once more”
He additionally felt that Bastianini ought to have been compelled to drop a place because of the contact, as a result of Marquez was compelled off monitor.
“I anticipated – truthfully talking – a drop one place [penalty] for Enea, as a result of in case you overtook a rider with contact and this rider went out of the monitor, I anticipated him to drop one place; not an enormous penalty, however drop one place and are available again,” mentioned Marquez.
“However he didn’t obtain a penalty and I acquired the penalty for the tyre temperature. However guidelines on the hand, I agree.
“The one undeniable fact that takes time for the stewards – and we had been talking and I used to be within the race route, as a result of they’ve the information – they see that my tyre temperature dropped after the contact of Enea.”
Requested whether or not he believed the stewards ought to take contact into consideration when deciding on a penalty, Marquez replied: “It may be, and it’s what they are saying to me is that it may be a consideration for the longer term. However proper now, the foundations are the foundations. And perhaps it may possibly change for the longer term.
“I believe sure, particularly if someone hits you and you might be out of the monitor. With these bikes, if you’re 1.5s or 2s slower in a lap the stress already drops 0.05.
“I wanted to ask as a result of I used to be out for a collision with one other rider. They usually mentioned ‘no, the foundations’. And I mentioned ‘I agree with you’. The foundations proper now are like this.”
An odd race
Maverick Vinales was proper behind Marquez and Di Giannantonio when the Gresini rider slowed to change positions, which Vinales instantly guessed the rationale for.
Requested in regards to the incident after the race, Vinales mentioned: “I understood actually fast, it was the entrance tyre stress. They wished to go behind for making an attempt to extend it.
“I see they had been all the time making an attempt to comply with. None of them wished to go within the entrance. I used to be OK so I wished to go within the entrance.”
Di Giannantonio mentioned he ‘guessed’ what Marquez might need been making an attempt to attain and admitted it felt unusual to be waved previous in that circumstance mid-race.
One other weird second got here on lap 19, the place each Di Giannantonio and Marquez appeared to gradual at Flip 9, with Vinales shifting into third as Marquez took fourth.
Previous penalties
The tyre stress restrict on the entrance was lowered this season after infringements turned very frequent in direction of the tip of the 2023 marketing campaign, following the rule’s mid-season introduction.
Nonetheless, the penalties had been additionally elevated significantly in comparison with 2023 – though MotoGP did at the least keep away from the unique plan to make the infringement equate to a disqualification.
Probably the most excessive profile incident this 12 months concerned Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo, who misplaced a dash podium after receiving a penalty at Jerez.
However he isn’t the one one to have been penalised, with Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia), Di Giannantonio, Jack Miller (KTM) and Alex Rins (Yamaha) all having fallen foul of this regulation.
