MotoGP elicits lively debate

Last Sunday’s happenings at the 2018 Argentine MotoGP has, naturally, elicited lively debate throughout the motorsport world.

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Just a short recap – reigning world champion Marc Marquez stalled his Repsol Honda while stopping on the starting grid.

He then push-started the machine and ignored a startline marshall’s instruction to ride around the track and take up position at the back of the grid.

Instead, he turned his bike around, rode the wrong way up the circuit, weaved his way between the other riders on the grid and took up his initial starting position.

In response, the race stewards imposed a ride-through penalty on Marquez.

Coming out of the pits, the reigning world champion carved through the field from the back, hitting first Aleix Espargaro (Gresini Aprilia) and then, more spectacularly, Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi.

Rossi fell, and the race officials imposed a 30-second penalty on Marquez.

Rossi, who eventually finished 19th – one place behind Marquez on the official time sheets – was enraged.

When Marquez approached him to apologise after the race, the Yamaha team refused him access to their pits.

Rossi later accused Marquez of “destroying the sport” by riding dangerously and barging past other riders.

“When you do 300km/h on the track, you have to have respect for your rivals. His behaviour creates a dangerous situation, which would be made worse if others acted in the same way, because he has won four of the last five world championships,” said Rossi who, generally, does not scare easily.

“Somebody has to do something – I am scared on the track when I’m with Marquez.”

Marquez said he did not hit Rossi intentionally and that he immediately apologised.

He also admitted that “mistakes were made on the startline”. Dorna, the administrators of MotoGP, did not censure Marquez, saying that the race officials are people nominated by the FIM, and that their decisions would not be judged.

Dorna would, however, “open a line of dialogue with the riders and teams”.

“In the next GP Safety Commission with the riders, in Austin, we will discuss this situation and for sure we will take some experience from that” said Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta.

In the interests of clarity, we asked Wally Pappas, the official Clerk of the Course for South African motorcycle racing, how he would have reacted to Marquez’s startline actions, were he officiating in Argentina.

“He would not have competed in that event,” Pappas said. “Push-starting your motorcycle after stalling on the startline should automatically demote you to the back of the grid.

“Then, ignoring a lawful instructionfrom a track official would lead to your immediate exclusion from the race,” said Pappas.

“Finally, turning your motorcycle around and going against the direction of normal race traffic would certainly lead to your immediate exclusion.

“I would have black-flagged Mr Marques at the end of the first lap and sent him back to his motorhome,” Pappas added.

So, there you have it.

According to international motorsport safety regulations, Marc Marquez should not have been in the race at the time he collected Valentino Rossi.

Whichever way one views it, the events in Argentina has led to a veritable explosion of interest in MotoGP racing.

Comes the Texan MotoGP on Sunday, April 22, millions of people who would not normally care about bike racing will watch on television.

Nothing like some absolute hatred at the front of the grid to invoke huge public interest.

One just hopes nobody gets hurt in the process.

MotoGP riders are the true gladiators of motorsport and we want them to wage war, but we want them to emerge unscathed on the other side.