Marquez's MotoGP tyre pressure penalty at Assen highlights unfair rule flaw

Marc Marquez rode just 0.01 bar below the minimum tire pressure allowed by MotoGP regulations during one lap of the Dutch Grand Prix and believes contact with Enea Bastianini was the cause.

The Gresini Ducati rider finished fourth in Sunday’s 26-lap Grand Prix at Assen, but was then demoted to 10th after being handed a 16-second post-race penalty for breaking the minimum pressure rule MotoGP front tires.

Marquez revealed that he felt on the first lap that his tire temperature was strangely low, and that he tried to control it by allowing VR46 driver Fabio Di Giannantonio to pass him on lap eight in an attempt to use its dirty air to build up pressure.

While that helped, the rule violation came on lap 21 when Ducati’s Enea Bastianini overtook Márquez at Turn 1 and sent him off the track due to contact.

Having to ride within the minimum limit of 1.8 bar for 15 laps (or 60% of the total race distance), Márquez missed it by a lap, his pressure falling 0.01 bar outside the tolerance legal while he was recovering from going off the track. .

“0.01 for a lap,” Marquez replied when asked how far below the limit he was. “It’s a shame, but the rules are the rules.

“The only thing we were discussing with the stewards was why the penalty was delayed, because as you saw in the race, I started well but suddenly I saw that there was something strange thing at the front and the tire pressure was very low.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“Then I let DiGia pass just to control the pressure at the front, and I was there behind him the whole race.

“I was in control in the right way, I was inside. But what I didn’t expect was the contact with Enea, where he kicked me out.

“And when I was on that lap, I was a second slower and I didn’t push well in Turns 3 and 5, because I didn’t know how the tire would be after coming out of the run-off zone.

“He fell again, it took two laps to come back and those two laps allowed me to exceed that minimum, which is 15 laps today.”

This exposed a loophole in the rules. Márquez reported this to the FIM stewards, who appear to agree with the eight-time world champion.

While he accepts his sanction as it falls within the current regulatory framework, he believes it should be amended for the future so that incidents which lead to a driver unintentionally breaking tyre pressure rules can be considered as mitigating circumstances.

“It’s possible, and that’s what they’re telling me, is that it can be a consideration for the future,” he said when asked if the tyre pressure rules should be changed to take into account the situation he found himself in at Assen.

“But for now, the rules are the rules. And maybe that can change in the future.

“I think so, especially if someone hits you and you’re off the track. Because at the end of the day, now the rules say if you don’t lose 16 seconds in a lap, we can’t change the rules.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“With these bikes, if you are a second or 1.5 seconds slower in a lap, the pressure already drops by 0.05. This should be the rule, but at the moment this is what I’m telling them, I needed to ask (if this could be a defense) because I had gone (off track) due to a collision with another pilot.

“I had to ask, and they said ‘no, those are the rules.’ And I said, “I agree with you.” The current rules are like this and we have to wait. »

Marquez added that he thought Bastianini would have been ordered to lose a position after their collision, but Bastianini thinks Marquez took more risks by trying to hang on to the outside of him.

The Gresini rider was the only one to be penalised for breaching tyre pressure rules at Assen. He is the sixth rider to be penalised this season, following five penalties handed out in the Jerez sprint.

Since its introduction last year, these regulations have become a headache for teams who must adapt the pressure to the racing conditions their drivers face. This process involves all teams and is not defined by Michelin, whose tire technicians can only provide advice.

Marquez’s team anticipated that he would ride in the pack, starting from sixth place, and so when he found himself third on the second lap, it put him in danger. This explains why he waved Di Giannantonio over on lap eight, while noting that his front pressure had only increased by 0.1 bar behind the Ducati VR46 – which was far less than expected.

He also pointed out that the weather conditions in Assen had played a role in his pressure difficulties.