“Adrenaline, frustration” - Marc Marquez reacts to Marco Bezzecchi’s Brno MotoGP ban
Marc Marquez chose not to directly criticise Marco Bezzecchi, saying the Aprilia rider will have learned from the incident.
Brno MotoGP winner Marc Marquez did not want to be drawn into direct comment on title leader Marco Bezzecchi’s ban from the Czech Grand Prix.
However, the reigning world champion, who previously tried to cool social media criticism of Bezzecchi after their clash at Mandalika last season, emphasised that riders are learning life lessons while growing up in the spotlight.
Bezzecchi was suspended from Sunday's race after pushing and striking a marshal following his Sprint crash. Marquez went on to win the grand prix, reducing his championship deficit to the Aprilia rider to 40 points.
"A lot of things to learn"
“I will not give any extra comment, because already there’s a lot of noise on social media,” Marquez, 33, said after his Brno victory.
“It can happen. We are young. We are learning things in front of millions of people.
“So, there with the full adrenaline, with maybe the frustration of the crash, of course I think he learned about it, but that's it.
“We are just learning things every day. And most of us, we are around 20 and 30 years old, so we still have a lot of things to learn in life.”
Bagnaia: Suspension “huge”
Bezzecchi lost his temper when a marshal accidentally twisted the throttle of his Aprilia while it was being lifted from the gravel trap.
The Italian rushed over to switch off the engine, pushing the marshal in the face, then delivered a slap before walking away.
The 27-year-old appeared emotional as he personally apologised to the marshal on Sunday morning at Brno.
Marquez's Ducati Lenovo team-mate Pecco Bagnaia, a close friend of Bezzecchi, made clear it is never acceptable to act in that way towards a marshal - but felt the punishment was severe.
“I know him very well. I know how adrenaline can affect you. This does not remove the things he did [to] the marshal, because you cannot touch them. They are there working for you," Bagnaia saud.
“But the punishment was heavy. Suspension for a race is huge. We saw many similar things in the past, [and] never happened that [penalty], so I maybe just want to say that it's huge.”
Aprilia’s appeal against the suspension was rejected on Saturday night, after which the team announced it would accept the decision.
Recent rider-marshal disputes have generally centred on competitors ignoring instructions after crashes, resulting in fines and/or suspensions from practice sessions.
Bezzecchi himself was previously fined for pushing a marshal who arrived to extinguish a fire on his crashed VR46 Ducati at Valencia in 2022.
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