Marc Marquez was solely 0.01 bar outdoors of MotoGP’s minimal tyre strain rule for one lap of the Dutch Grand Prix and feels contact with Enea Bastianini was responsible.
The Gresini Ducati rider completed fourth in Sunday’s 26-lap grand prix at Assen, however was later demoted to tenth after being hit with a post-race time penalty of 16 seconds for breaching MotoGP’s minimal entrance tyre strain rule.
Marquez revealed he felt from the primary lap that his tyre temperature was unusually low, and tried to manage this by permitting VR46 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio to overhaul him on lap eight in a bid to make use of his soiled air to carry the strain again up.
Whereas this helped, the foundations breach got here on lap 21 when Ducati’s Enea Bastianini overtook Marquez at Flip 1 and despatched him off-track as a result of contact.
Needing to trip inside the minimal restrict of 1.8 bar for 15 laps (amounting to 60% of full race distance), Marquez missed this by one tour, along with his strain dropping 0.01 bar outdoors of the authorized tolerance as he recovered from working off-track.
“0.01 for one lap,” Marquez responded when requested how a lot beneath the restrict he was. “It’s a disgrace, however the guidelines are the foundations.
“The one factor we had been discussing with the stewards, for that cause it delayed the penalty, as a result of as you noticed within the race I began in a great way however instantly I noticed on the entrance there was one thing unusual and the tyre strain was tremendous low.
Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Group
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“Then I let DiGia go simply to manage the entrance strain, after which I used to be there behind him all of the race.
“I used to be controlling in a great way, I used to be inside. However what I didn’t anticipate was the contact with Enea, the place he pushed me out.
“And once I was out that lap, I used to be one second slower and I didn’t push properly in that Flip 3 and Flip 5, as a result of I didn’t know the way the tyre could be after coming from the run-off space.
“It dropped once more, took two laps to return again and people two laps made me out of that minimal, which 15 laps at the moment.”
This has highlighted a flaw with the foundations. Marquez has flagged this to the FIM stewards, who seemingly agree with the eight-time world champion.
Whereas he accepts his punishment, as a result of it falls underneath the present regulatory framework, Marquez believes it needs to be tweaked for the longer term in order that incidents which trigger a rider to unintentionally breach the tyre strain guidelines could be seen as mitigating circumstances.
“Might be, and it’s what they are saying to me is that it may be a consideration for the longer term,” he replied when requested if the tyre strain guidelines needs to be modified to account for the scenario he discovered himself in at Assen.
“However proper now, the foundations are the foundations. And perhaps it could change for the longer term.
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“I feel sure, particularly if someone hits you and you’re out of the observe. As a result of ultimately, now the foundations say if you happen to don’t lose 16s in a lap, we can not change the foundations.
“With these bikes, if you’re one second or 1.5s slower in a lap, the strain already drops 0.05. Needs to be [the rule], however in the meanwhile it’s what I say to them, I wanted to ask [if that could be a defence] as a result of I used to be out [off-track] for a collision with one other rider.
“And I must ask, and so they stated ‘no, it’s the foundations’. And I stated ‘I agree with you’. The principles proper now are like this and we have to wait.”
Marquez added that he thought Bastianini would have been given an order to drop one place after their collision. Bastianini believes Marquez risked extra making an attempt to hold on across the outdoors of him.
The Gresini rider was the one one discovered to have breached the tyre strain guidelines at Assen. He’s the sixth rider to be punished this season, after 5 penalties had been handed out within the Jerez dash.
For the reason that regulation was launched final 12 months, it has precipitated a headache for groups in setting strain to match the race circumstances their rider would possibly discover. This can be a course of that entails all the crew and isn’t set by Michelin, whose tyre technicians can solely supply recommendation.
Marquez’s crew anticipated that he could be using within the pack, ranging from sixth, and so when he discovered himself in third on lap two it put him in danger. This explains why he waved Di Giannantonio by means of on lap eight, although he famous that his entrance strain solely went up by 0.1 bar behind the VR46 Ducati – which was a lot lower than anticipated.
He additionally pointed to climactic circumstances at Assen as taking part in a component in his strain struggles.