MotoGP News
Date:
16/May/2013
Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez were happy to shake hands at
Le Mans on Thursday - but Lorenzo still thinks the rookie should have received
some kind of official warning for the Jerez incident.
20-year-old Marquez dived for the inside at the very final
corner of their home Spanish Grand Prix. Contact followed, with Lorenzo bumped
wide while Marquez snatched second place behind Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.
Lorenzo said: “Now I’ve cooled down, but I still believe the
action from Jerez was too hard. I have nothing against Marc, because he’s young
and when you see some space you try. But I think this year we have got the
license points system and we are not using it at the moment.”
The new system works in a similar way to normal road driving
penalties, with any points accumulating throughout the season. Punishment
starts with demotion to the back of the grid (four points), followed by a pit
lane start (seven points) and race ban (ten points).
“I would like Race Direction to use this new system. And at
Jerez, in my opinion, the minimum should have been some points for Marc,”
explained Lorenzo. “Points, a ‘yellow card’, call it what you want. But
something should be used.
“In racing it is possible to touch another rider, but when
you hit another rider it is a different story. You should get some sort of penalty.
When you get penalised you can become a better rider. It happened with me in
2005 in 250cc. I only changed after I was banned for one race.
“MotoGP bikes can be dangerous. There must be some limits.”
Marquez, who became MotoGP’s youngest ever winner in Texas
and currently leads the World Championship, continued to defend his actions.
Marquez said: “If you do it on the first lap or in the
middle of the race I can understand a penalty. But on the last lap… It’s
racing. I think fans like it.”
They may never agree, but the pair had already shaken hands
after being placed next to each other for the flight back from Jerez - then shook
hands again in front of the media at Le Mans.
Lorenzo recalled: “There were almost 300 people on the plane
from Jerez and we were placed next to each other! It was funny. We spoke about
normal things then later we shook hands. I have no problem with Marc, I just
want to improve the safety of my sport.”
Despite Lorenzo’s articulate argument, most riders feel that
it was correct not to punish Marquez.
Monster Yamaha Tech’s Cal Crutchlow summed it up best: “We’re
racing motorcycles, there’s 24-25 guys riding around and at some point the main
guys are going to hit each other or at least touch.
“Was it over the limit? I don’t know… But nobody crashed,
nobody was hurt. I think it needs to be forgotten and let’s carry on racing.”
Free practice for the French MotoGP gets underway on Friday.
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