Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez’s win in the Spanish Grand Prix Sprint race was an incredible display of sporting resilience, but unfortunately, the MotoGP regulations state that he must be punished.
The factory Ducati star was riding in P2 behind his younger brother, Alex Marquez, at the time of his crash at turn 13, and was able to pick his bike back up and rejoin the race.
His crash was caused by the heavens opening over the Circuito de Jerez, and came at a point in the race in which riders were deliberating over whether to enter the pits and swap to their wet-weather bike, or continue to brave the conditions.
Should Marc Marquez have received a penalty for cutting across the track to pit after crashing in the Jerez Sprint?
With his incident taking place on the apex of turn 13, the final corner of the circuit, he looked unable to make his way back into the pit lane after having already gone past the entry.
However, Marquez trundled across the grass and entered the pit lane anyway. It was a key moment in the Sprint race, and all but decided his incredible comeback from lying on the ground to standing on the top step of the podium after the chequered flag.
- READ MORE: MotoGP Sprint results as Marc Marquez wins at Spanish Grand Prix despite crash in rain-hit race
MotoGP communicated that the pit-entry lines at Jerez ‘must be respected’
After the podium celebrations had died down at the Spanish Grand Prix, a big question mark remained: would Marquez be penalised for seemingly ignoring the orders of race directors and cutting across the pit lane in order to change bike?
MotoGP journalist Simon Patterson revealed on X that the stewards had taken a look at the incident and deemed that no further action against the Spaniard would be necessary, due to the fact that no advantage was gained.
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However, one could argue that Marquez was able to immediately switch onto his wet setup, rather than being forced to do another rotation of the 2.7-mile circuit before being able to swap prototypes.
In this case, the regulations are only looking at the lap times. Marquez didn’t immediately gain any lap time by producing the manoeuvre, and so he didn’t warrant a penalty.
Why Marc Marquez didn’t receive a penalty in the Jerez Sprint
On the other side of the coin is MotoGP’s race direction instructions, which are given out to teams and riders on the Wednesday before a race weekend.
Posted to X by MotoGP journalist Ruben Carballo, it stipulates that all riders must respect the white lines when entering the pit lane, regardless of whether it is dry or wet conditions.
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While Marquez didn’t necessarily cut across the interior white line, it makes his entrance into the pit lane across the grass somewhat of a grey area.
An FIM spokesperson has since explained why they did not interpret the wording in such a way that the Ducati rider lost the victory, even if the guidelines suggest that Marquez should have received a penalty.
With the reigning world champion now taking maximum points in the Sprint race, it has magnified the mistakes of Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin, who crashed out in the early stages of the race.
Marquez now sits 24 points behind Bezzecchi’s benchmark in the riders’ standings, and overtook the formerly leading rider for the Ducati stable, Fabio Di Giannantonio.
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