Marquez makes headlines at Valencia

MotoGP News
Date: 9/November/2012

The final round of the 2012 MotoGP World Championship got off to something of a false start on Friday, when changeable weather drastically reduced the track time.

But there was controversy in the supporting Moto2 category, where newly crowned champion and 2013 MotoGP rider Marc Marquez was punished for once again colliding with a rival in practice.

The Spanish teenager, due to take over from the retiring Casey Stoner at Repsol Honda, will start his final Moto2 race from the back of the grid after an attempt to overtake Simone Corsi resulted in the Italian suffering a heavy crash.

Marquez escaped sanction in a similar incident at Motegi last month, but Race Direction felt he had gone too far on Friday, declaring he “rode in an irresponsible manner”, “causing danger” to Corsi.

Marquez explained: “I had already overtaken other riders on that corner and I hadn’t thought about [Corsi] being one of the later brakers in the class. I passed him on the inside and then felt a touch. I went to apologise to him after the session, he understood and the most important thing is that he wasn’t hurt.”

Valentino Rossi summed up the opinion of most MotoGP riders, saying: “I like Marquez. He's a talented guy but sometimes he is too aggressive. In MotoGP the speed is a lot higher and it is more dangerous, so I think that he will have to calm down a bit next year.”

Starting from the back of the grid is nothing new to Marquez, who received the same penalty at the 2011 Australian Moto2 round after yet another practice incident. Marquez went on to finish third in that race and some are speculating that he could win on Sunday.

In MotoGP, Ducati’s Nicky Hayden was fastest in a fully wet morning practice, with privateer CRT rider Randy de Puniet leading the damp second session, having been one of a handful of riders to make the switch to slicks.

The top four riders in the standings - Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso - whose final Championship rankings are already decided, didn’t even complete a lap in FP2 due to the in-between surface conditions.