Ducati: Marc Marquez acquitted by commissioners, Brivio skeptical
The decision of the race commissioners to acquit Marc Marquez after the maneuver made by the reigning world champion following his fall on the track is causing a controversial tail after the sprint race in Jerez won by the Catalan champion. The number 93, who crashed with five laps to go due to the track made slippery by the rain, cut the pitlane entrance, entering the pits and changing his bike earlier than the other centaurs.
Trackhouse Aprilia team principal Davide Brivio commented perplexedly to Sky on the commissioners’ decision: “We get protocols before every weekend, with also indicated the procedures for entering and exiting the pitlane, because obviously every circuit is different. The protocol, which becomes a kind of rule, says that entering the pitlane you cannot cut the inside line, in this case on the left, so as not to gain advantage. On the other hand, it doesn’t say anything about the outside line, the one cut by Marc. But if you look at the general regulation, both for what’s written in the regulation and as a general concept, it says that you have to use only the track and only the pitlane,” are the words taken from formulapassion.
“If the bike goes off the track it has to follow the marshals’ instructions: in that case there were no marshals, so Marquez didn’t have the instructions. But the rules also say that you must not have any advantages. The rider must not have advantages: it’s written ‘unfair advantages,’ so ‘unfair advantages’.”
“And at that moment Marquez had already decided not to enter the pitlane, so he should have done an extra lap. Having fallen, he took advantage of that to enter the pitlane by cutting the grass. Now everyone can decide whether that was an advantage or a disadvantage… Marquez did not violate the regulations in the sense that he did not cut the inside of the pitlane. Then whether he had an advantage or a disadvantage from entering from the last corner, I’ll let you decide that, the stewards judged that: they said he didn’t cut the inside line and he did everything safely because he waited for the others to pass. It’s a bit of a question like that.”
The person directly involved commented on his maneuver as follows, “The cut? In the end it’s a major force. After a crash the bike is not good enough to go on and do another lap, but it was good enough to get to the pits. Then I didn’t cut any corners, I had already done it and didn’t endanger others. Maybe tomorrow they will add a new line to the rulebook, but for now it doesn’t say anything.”
