MotoGP race director gives full explanation on Marc Marquez track limits controversy
Full statement from Mike Webb on Marc Marquez Q2 lap cancellation situation given to Crash.net
Dorna Sports has shared a full statement from MotoGP race director Mike Webb explaining in detail why Marc Marquez’s Japanese Grand Prix pole lap wasn’t cancelled immediately.
The Gresini rider set a 1m42.868s in the closing stages of Q2 on Saturday morning at Motegi to take provisional pole, but had the lap cancelled for exceeding track limits.
The lap wasn’t immediately taken off the board and wouldn’t be officially communicated as deleted until after the chequered flag, which left Marquez with no time to try for a legal time.
Due to the rain drops that were falling late on in Q2, Marquez later said he so no sense in pushing after his initial 1m42.868s lap. As a result, he qualified ninth.
The Gresini team was furious with the delay in the cancellation, which has been blamed on a glitch in the system that sends notifications of track limits infringements.
Track limits are policed by sensors lining the green painted run-off areas where advantages are deemed to be gained by going onto them.
This makes the process in cancelling laps and the notification of that automatic, though in the case of Marquez in Q2 at Motegi the software glitch meant the stewards had to log this lap manually.
Following a request to Dorna from Crash.net, an official statement from race director Webb read:
“The track limits sensor was triggered immediately, which leads to the automatic cancellation of any lap.
“The FIM MotoGP Stewards entered it into the system right away, but unfortunately, a software glitch interrupted this process and meant the lap then needed to be cancelled manually, causing a delay to the notification.
“This is the first time this has happened in thousands of track limits infractions investigated each season.
“The cause of this glitch has been located and the system adjusted in order to ensure it cannot happen again.”
Marquez went on to finish the sprint race on Saturday afternoon in third despite his lowly starting position.
