Alex Marquez rails against MotoGP grid penalty: “They disturbed me”
Alex Marquez received a MotoGP grid penalty in Hungary but insists he was also impeded.
Alex Marquez, penalised for obstructing rivals in Friday practice at the Hungarian MotoGP, was adamant he had also been the victim of slow riding.
TV cameras caught both Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia gesturing furiously after they caught the Gresini Ducati rider, who was later judged by the FIM Stewards to have blocked their lines.
But Miller was also punished, while Alex Marquez insisted the incident began when he was impeded - and that he had then done his best to stay out of the way.
“All that incident started on my flying lap,” Marquez told MotoGP.com. “I was going really, really fast but in T4 I found Jack there stopped, trying to follow somebody. And also Diggia preparing his flying lap. So they disturbed me. Especially Diggia.
“And from the moment, in T1-T2 I was just trying to be close [to the side of the track] and not disturb anybody. But looks like I disturbed a little bit Jack, or it’s what he thinks.
“So he was complaining to me, but he forgot that other riders were coming, like Pecco.
“I was out of the line, really on the inside, but Jack was in the middle. So just that. I don't know what will happen.”
The Stewards later handed Marquez and Miller three-place grid penalties: Marquez for delaying Miller and Bagnaia, while Miller was punished for impeding Bagnaia.
“It’s also true that when it’s a new track, everybody’s trying to find some slipstreams and it’s difficult to know which area is better to avoid being in the middle of somebody,” Marquez added.
Marquez, who begins the weekend 142 points behind brother and world championship leader Marc, but 52 ahead of Bagnaia in third, now faces his second consecutive Sunday sanction.
The Spaniard served a long lap penalty in Austria after colliding with Joan Mir at Brno before the summer break.
“On the single-lap performance we’re competitive, even though this is not a circuit that takes the best out of my riding style,” Marquez said.
“Marc and Fermin [Aldeguer, team-mate] are surely the two riders who were more comfortable out there and it’ll be key to work well tomorrow.
“Today we worked a lot with the medium tyre, while tomorrow we’ll focus more on the soft one.”
The penalty will only affect Marquez’s starting position for Sunday’s grand prix, not the Sprint.
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Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
