Aprilia calls for MotoGP to “fix something” after Marc Marquez Jerez track cut

MotoGP needs to “fix something” after Marc Marquez won the Jerez Sprint after cutting part of the track to get to pit lane.

Marquez was second when the rain started to fall heavily at Jerez during the MotoGP Sprint on Saturday and he followed Alex Marquez past the pit entry at the end of lap eight.

Alex Marquez then had a moment in the final corner, and behind him Marc Marquez crashed. The 2025 MotoGP runner-up would crash at turn eight on the following lap, while the reigning champion remounted his factory Ducati and crossed the track to enter the pits.

The regulations do not specify a point from which the the pit lane must be entered, only that the white line on the inside of the pit lane entry turn at Jerez must not be crossed during a race.

As such, even though Marquez cut across the inside of the final corner to get to the pit lane after riding past the pit lane entry, he did not breach any regulations regarding pit lane entry and therefore was not penalised.

Johann Zarco disagreed with this after the Sprint, saying that Marquez effectively went backwards on-track in order to get to the pits after his crash.

On Sunday morning, Aprilia Racing team manager Paolo Bonora added to the discussion, saying that MotoGP needs to “fix something” about its regulations for entering the pits.

“For sure it’s something related to the past, this is already the past today,” said Bonora, speaking to the MotoGP world feed broadcast during Warm Up.

“It is not the moment to talk because we have to be very focused on today’s race. 

“But for sure we have to fix something that is not well-defined in the regulations. 

“For sure the pit lane entry has to be much more well-defined. 

“It’s necessary to talk in a better way about the advantage he [Marquez] probably has taken for that manoeuvre.”

Bezzecchi “misfortune”

For Aprilia itself the Sprint went poorly, as Marco Bezzecchi span his rear tyre off the line and went from fourth on the grid to 17th before crashing after swapping bikes.

Bezzecchi had caught Alex Marquez’s tear-off when exiting the final corner on his front wing, and when he stopped on the grid the tear-off fell under his bike, causing his poor start. 

MotoGP’s regulations mean riders are not allowed to pull a tear-off on the grid to avoid such an incident, but Bezzecchi’s start on Saturday is proof to Bonora that this too is a regulation that needs looking at again.

“Misfortune is the correct word,” Bonora said of Bezzecchi’s Sprint.

“Unfortunately yesterday he [Bezzecchi] made a big spin during the first metres of the launch phase. 

“We have seen the tear-off was immediately in front of his rear tyre. It was on the right wing and suddenly it go down immediately in front of the rear tyre. 

“It’s something that we have to fix because initially in the year we talked about this; it is only [banned] to remove the tear-off on the grid, but as you have seen yesterday it is not enough.

“It is necessary for us to define a place where it is possible to remove the tear-off. 

“We thought it could be very useful to say to the rider to remove on the straight line, for example here from corner five to corner six because it would remove any possible problem before entering in the last split. 

“But, by the way, it was a misfortune, we look forward for today. 

“Yesterday was not a great weather, great temperature for us, but we were confident that with the race pace of Marco and of Jorge [Martin] as well we could have scored points for this long championship.”

Jorge Martin also had a poor Sprint, the Spaniard retiring after the first lap with brake problems.

Bonora insisted this was not a technical problem and suggested Aprilia does not yet understand exactly what caused the issue.

“It was not a technical problem,” Bonora said.

“So, we are understanding better the situation, but there was no problem at all on the front disc, for sure, but we are trying to understand even better the situation.”