After three races out through injury, Marc Marquez returns to his Honda for this weekend’s French Grand Prix. At Le Mans, however, the Spaniard will not have to serve his two long-lap penalties he received for the accident with Miguel Oliveira at the season opener in Portugal.
“When I received this penalty, I went to the race commissioners. I completely agreed because I had made a big mistake,” Marquez recalls of the first race weekend at the end of March in Portimao.
“The paper said, and we talked about it, that the penalty was for the Argentine Grand Prix. That was on the paper that I signed. I asked the race stewards again, ‘This is for Argentina?’ and they said yes.”
“Then I had the operation and for some reason someone changed the penalty. It wasn’t my fault,” says the eight-time motorcycle world champion. The FIM Court of Appeal annulled this subsequently filed document.
Thus, the penalty only applied to Argentina. Since this race weekend is over, the penalty is practically completed. In the meantime, the formulation of the race stewards has been changed. A penalty applies to the next race in which a driver participates.
But Marquez is critical of this rule: “I don’t think that’s the best solution because it could mean that the drivers take a greater risk. It would have been easy for me to drive in Jerez, complete the penalty and then to give up at the pits.”
“We have to avoid that. It will create situations where drivers are forced to come back. It also creates a bad image because we complete the penalty and then pit and stop. They have to find another system.”
A special passage is also recorded in the final report of the FIM Court of Appeal. On March 30th, the race stewards sent the teams a document detailing how to proceed in the future.
It states: “If a driver is absent from the next event due to injury or illness (which need not have anything to do with the original incident), then the penalty is deemed to have been served and will not be taken to subsequent events.”
This is precisely the scenario that Marquez described should be avoided. The fact that he missed several races is also a bigger punishment for him than two long-lap penalties: “Because if you have to stay at home for three races, that’s the worst punishment for an athlete.”
Marc Marquez: “It can happen to anyone”
Some drivers had been critical of his maneuvers in Portimao. “But that’s racing,” Marquez defends. “Nobody wants to trip someone, fall themselves or hurt themselves. We all push ourselves to the limit. Sometimes you fall and you touch someone.”
“In these first races we saw that a lot of things happened. None of it was intentional. The result is what it is. It can happen to anyone,” says the 30-year-old. That’s why he doesn’t want to change his DNA.
“It’s good for me to get back to work now, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to make the most of the situation – like I do at every Grand Prix. The important thing is that we work and develop further.”
At Le Mans he will also try out the chassis developed by Kalex for the first time. “All Honda drivers suffer. They are good drivers. We have to work together. Mir is a winner. He wants to win. That’s why he is [in Jerez] fell four times in one weekend. We don’t know how else to understand the sport.”