Photography by Gold & Goose
MotoGP World Championship leader Marc Marquez was surprised to learn that MotoGP Race Direction is looking further into the incident between himself and Dani Pedrosa from the recent Aragón Grand Prix, but the 20-year-old is not expecting to be penalized.
When running behind Pedrosa on the sixth lap of the race at MotorLand Aragón, Marquez out-braked himself and made passing contact with the Repsol Honda Team bike in front of him, thus slicing through a sensor cable on the back of Pedrosa’s machine which left the latter without traction control and therefore crashing out of the race just moments later.
Race Direction later confirmed that an enquiry would be staged next Thursday, ahead of the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, to ‘technically analyze’ the moment.
“If I were in that same situation again, I would go for the safest line possible,” Marquez comments. “Presumably, if I had not cut that traction control cable, nobody would have said anything.”
Furthermore, Marquez – who went on to win from reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) – does not forecast any sort of punishment. He does, however, reveal that Repsol Honda heads have ‘spoken, not about the incident, but about how to change the location of that cable because that could also have happened to me’.
“I’m hearing a lot of comments and reviews, but I feel I have plenty of support,” the rookie begins to sum up. “(Race Direction) will hear what everybody has to say, check everything and then act accordingly, but I have one thing clear: I know my goal, which is to win the MotoGPworld title.”
With four races remaining, Marquez leads Lorenzo by 39 points.
Earlier last week Javier Alonso, Dorna Sports representative of FIM Race Direction, spoke of the decision to organize a hearing involving Marquez and Pedrosa following their incident in Aragón, explaining the possibilities of resultant sanctions or changes in the MotoGP™ regulations.
Following the incident which involved the pair of Repsol Honda Team riders on the sixth lap of Sunday’s race at MotorLand Aragón, Race Direction has confirmed that it had summoned both competitors as well as representatives of the team in order to technically analyze the moment, with a hearing set to take place at Sepang next Thursday, 10 October.
Alonso explained both the reasons for organizing the hearing and for delaying any decision until MotoGP arrives at Sepang this week.
“This was a very peculiar incident with a very technical element to it,” Alonso begins explaining to motogp.com. “In fact, when we first saw it live we did not think anything had happened, as such; although it appeared as though Marc Marquez had touched Dani Pedrosa, we did not believe that there was any connection between the contact and the subsequent crash for Pedrosa.
“After the race, we knew that there had been a technical problem and that a cut cable had been the most likely cause of Pedrosa’s traction control failure which in-turn caused his retirement. That is when we decided to launch an investigation. However, we need to gather an amount of technical data and for this reason we chose to delay the hearing until Malaysia.”
Undoubtedly the biggest question now is whether or not championship leader Marquez may be cautioned or penalized for his part in the incident with Pedrosa, who after the race complained of his teammate being ‘on the limit’.
“Everything remains open, ranging from sanction to no sanction,” Alonso continues. “What needs to be understood is whether this could have been avoided – both the incident between the two riders and the accident itself – because those are the two important aspects. Once we understand all of this, if we are required to take a decision we will take the most suitable one.”
