Meregalli: 'Dangerous' Marquez style 'should be discouraged'

Movistar Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli joined rider Valentino Rossi and factory racing boss Lin Jarvis in calling for further action to be taken against MotoGP champion Marc Marquez.

The Spaniard bumped into Rossi in the closing stages of Sunday's race in Argentina, with the Italian then falling a low-speed when he ran wide onto the grass.

Taken in isolation - and ignoring the star power of the riders involved - it could be classed as a clumsy 'racing incident'. Similar to the Zarco-Pedrosa pass that sent the Spaniard into a nasty highside at the same corner on the opening lap.

But while Zarco (who was not punished) steered clear of any further incidents, Marquez had already been penalised for knocking into Aleix Espargaro at the same corner earlier in the race and had several near misses with other riders, in both the race and practice.

"Valentino was riding in sixth place, behind Maverick, when his race was compromised by Marquez," Meregalli said.

"Whilst we respect Race Direction's decision to impose a 30s-penalty on Marquez, we feel his dangerous riding style should be further discouraged for safety reasons and for the sake of the sport."

The 30-second post-race penalty imposed on Marquez dropped him to 18th and outside of the points, but he still finished one place ahead of Rossi.

The pair have now dropped to fifth (Marquez) and eighth (Rossi) in the world championship standings, 18 and 22 points respectively behind new title leader and Argentina winner Cal Crutchlow.

"A lot of damage has been done, considering that Valentino misses out on quite a chunk of championship points," Meregalli added.

"It's a disappointing end to the race weekend for him, but the entire team will pull together to make up for today's loss at the next GP in Austin, where we hope to see fair racing only."

The first of the three penalties Marquez received during Sunday's race was for restarting and returning to his grid slot after stalling.