FIM president: “Marc Marquez shouldn’t have appealed penalty - decision soon…”
The final decision of whether Marquez must still serve a double long lap penalty will be made by the MotoGP Court of Appeal shortly, he insists.
But the decision from Honda to appeal the rewording of the initial penalty rule has drawn criticism.
Jorge Viegas, the FIM president, told MotoSprint: “The situation is clear: Marc did what he did and agreed with the penalty.
“The Stewards Panel wrote an unclear sanction, so I asked them to make it clearer, and Team Honda consequently appealed, so much so that I personally spoke to [team manager Alberto] Puig.
“The appeal was well done, so the ball went to the FIM judges, who decided to suspend the penalty, to have time to decide and avoid problems.
“The decision will come soon. Personally if I was Marc I would have served the penalty, without appealing, as now he has given people the chance to think that he doesn't want to serve it, which is not nice.”
Marquez crashed into Miguel Oliveira at Portimao, the season-opening grand prix, and was hit by a double long lap penalty, which he agreed with.
The wording of the rule, at the time, said Marquez must serve it at the next race - but he missed Argentina anyway, due to an injury sustained in the crash.
In his absence the rule was reworded so that Marquez must serve it whenever he returns, but Honda appealed this.
Spanish media have reported that Honda’s appeal will be successful on the grounds that Marquez repeatedly asked the Stewards if the penalty was only for Argentina, and they answered ‘yes’, before he signed the sanctioning papers.
It remains unknown if Marquez is fit enough, after hand surgery, to return at this weekend’s Spanish MotoGP.
And if he does return, we don’t yet know if a double long lap penalty awaits.
The six-time premier class champion is 57 points behind championship leader Marco Bezzecchi in the MotoGP standings after his injury-interrupted start to 2023.
Honda won their first grand prix via a rider apart from Marquez for the first time since 2018 last time out, at the Grand Prix of the Americas with Alex Rins.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
