“We need to be against violence” - Marco Bezzecchi ally on Brno MotoGP suspension

Luca Marini has spoken in favour of the suspension from the Brno MotoGP of Marco Bezzecchi after the latter hit a marshal after he crashed out of the Sprint on Saturday.

Marini and Bezzecchi have long been friends, having spent time as team-mates at the VR46 team in Moto2 and been fellow members of the VR46 Rider Academy for over 10 years.

The Honda HRC rider, then, would be a prime candidate for someone to oppose Bezzecchi’s suspension, but the 28-year-old Italian was in agreement with the decision.

“Well, I agree,” Luca Marini said after the Czech MotoGP when asked about Bezzecchi’s suspension.

“It's true that in that moment we have a lot of adrenaline as riders, so he [Beezzecchi] understood I think his mistake. He explained, he apologised and everything, so everybody agrees on his behaviour of today.

“We need to always be against violence even if it is nothing crazy, but it's a behaviour that is not acceptable in any sport. 

“So, at the end the penalty is big, but because it never happened before. Sometimes in the past we had some pushing or some shouting to the marshal, and like this it never happened, so I can understand also the stewards taking this decision. 

“It's making everything more loud because Bez is the championship leader. If he was the last rider on the grid, maybe it would pass everything more calm, I think. 

“So, I think that everybody can understand the stewards and also Bez for sure, he understood his mistake. 

“I want to say that everybody here is for sure in the same direction, that we are against any kind of violence.”

Marini also thought that the decision of the stewards set an important precedent to the younger riders, particularly those in Moto3.

“I think that every rider that is here in this paddock saw the penalty and said ‘Okay, understood’,” Marini said.

“But it's correct, like this, because at the end it's like they did a fantastic job for me in Moto3, putting more penalty for slowing down in the line, for causing crashes, et cetera. 

“This improved so much the behaviour of the riders, the young riders.”

The Italian added that there is still room for improvement in the clarity of penalties in MotoGP: “I think that in every sport, in every motorsport also, the rules are really clear. ‘If you do this mistake, you get this penalty’. 

“In MotoGP we are improving it, still sometimes it's not so predictable or objective. Sometimes you can have some room [for] interpretation, because it's also quite a difficult sport to understand from outside. 

“But every year the stewards are doing a great job and improving. 

“So, we can just be happy and satisfied about their job, because they are improving, they are growing and listening to our feedback.”