Raging Joan Mir demands Alex Marquez apology - “it’s not the first time…”
Honda rider unhappy after Alex Marquez tangle ends his Japanese Grand Prix
Joan Mir has vented his anger with “missile” Alex Marquez after a tangle in the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix and says “you have to think a bit more on the bike”.
The Honda rider was trying to recover from 17th on the grid when Alex Marquez - who started 10th - collided with the rear of Mir’s bike at Turn 12 on the opening lap, having run wide at Turn 11 seconds before.
The incident took both riders out of the race and was placed under investigation by the FIM stewards, who deemed Marquez was at fault and handed him a long lap penalty to be served at the next grand prix he competes in.
That is currently scheduled to be the Australian GP.
In his Spanish language debrief on Sunday, Mir was reported by es.motorsport.com as saying: “In Turn 11 Alex went long, and going into Turn 12 he hit me from behind, without thinking, almost like a missile.
“You have to think a bit more on the bike. It's free to ruin other people's races.
“I'm more angry about the sporting result than about getting hurt.”
When Mir spoke to the media it was before the stewards made their ruling, though the delay in an outcome for something the Honda rider felt was a blatant contravening of the rules also angered him.
“I'm waiting for Race Direction [the stewards] to make a pronouncement - they may be sleeping or eating,” he said sarcastically before the penalty to Marquez was handed out.
At the time Mir was also unhappy that Marquez hadn’t apologised to him, noting “it's not the first time something like this has happened to me with him.”
“I was doing well, I was making a comeback until Alex decided to end my race.”
“This is not a racing incident. When you have a driver in front of you and you hit him without thinking, it's not a simple racing incident.”
Alex Marquez has since said that he has been to apologise to Mir, but also took umbrage to the penalty he received.
The Gresini rider feels the stewards have not been consistent, pointing to the fact that Jack Miller wasn’t given the same penalty for triggering the multi-rider pile-up at Turn 3 of the Indonesian GP last week.
Miller accepted blame for this incident but didn’t actually collide with anyone: he crashed on his own in the group and his bike collected the riders, including Marquez, around him.
The stewards determined on that occasion that it was a racing incident.
