Aprilia explains appeal attempt over Marco Bezzecchi's Brno MotoGP ban

Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola has apologised for Marco Bezzecchi’s behaviour in the aftermath of Saturday’s Sprint race accident at Brno.

The MotoGP World Championship leader has been banned from Sunday’s Czech Grand Prix for pushing and striking a marshal.

“First of all, we also want to apologise to the marshal. Second, we accept the penalty. We don't tolerate this kind of behaviour,” Rivola told MotoGP pit lane reporter Jack Appleyard during warm-up.

Why Aprilia appealed

With that in mind, Rivola explained why Aprilia still attempted to appeal the punishment, which was rejected on Saturday night.

“The reason why we appealed at the beginning was that we felt the disproportion from the action to the penalty according to what we saw in other cases, similar cases in the past,” Rivola said.

“But that's it. So now we look forward to Assen.”

In the past, riders such as Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli have been fined and suspended from the start of practice for a lesser offence of disobeying instructions from marshals. 

Meanwhile, Bezzecchi was previously fined for pushing a marshal after an accident at Valencia in 2022.

"Physical aggression... wholly unacceptable"

Part of a statement from the FIM Appeal Stewards read: "Physical aggression towards marshals is wholly unacceptable in professional motorsport and cannot be tolerated irrespective of the circumstances leading to the incident. 

"Failure to respond appropriately to such conduct would risk sending the wrong message to competitors throughout the Championship and would be inconsistent with the obligation of the governing body to protect officials, volunteers and workers who contribute to the sport. 

"Having regard to the seriousness of the conduct, the status of the persons involved as circuit safety officials, the need to uphold proper standards of behaviour and the need for both specific and general deterrence, the Appeal Stewards are satisfied that the Stewards Panel was entitled to conclude that the rider’s actions constituted an action prejudicial to the interests of the sport."

After that decision, Aprilia announced that they accepted the penalty and would not be appealing further to the International Court of Appeal (CAI).

The Bezzecchi incident follows team-mate Jorge Martin triggering a first-corner pile-up involving the Italian at Balaton Park, as well as a clash between Martin and Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez in Catalunya.

Asked if such mistakes could end up costing Aprilia dearly in terms of the world title, Rivola replied:

“I think the championship is very, very long. We have a competitive bike. We have very competitive riders. So there's going to be enough championship [left] for everybody and for us too.”

Martin starts this afternoon's race 15 points behind Bezzecchi and could retake the title lead. However, he also has a double long lap penalty to serve for the Balaton Park mistake.

VR46's Fabio di Giannantonio (-36 points), KTM's Pedro Acosta (-48 points) and Ducati Lenovo's reigning champion Marc Marquez (-65 points) will also be looking to capitalise on Bezzecchi's non-start.