Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia give away positions due to tire pressure – Marc Marquez wins – No penalty for violating minimum pressure
The minimum pressure in the front tire played a decisive role in the MotoGP sprint in Brno. Both Marc Marquez and his Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia had to deliberately let their opponents pass.
In the end, Marc Marquez won ahead of the KTM duo Pedro Acosta and Enea Bastianini (Tech3) (to the race results). Initially, an investigation was launched against Marc Marquez due to the minimum pressure in the front tire. However, according to the race director’s check, everything was in order.
At the start of the short 10-lap race, Bagnaia took the holeshot from pole position, but Marc Marquez attacked in turn 3 and took the lead. Behind them, Joan Mir (Honda) and Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) lost many positions in separate incidents.
At the start of the second lap, wildcard starter Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha) crashed in the first sector in a left-hand corner and collided with the side of substitute rider Takaaki Nakagami (LCR-Honda). Both riders crashed into the gravel trap and were forced to retire.
The Ducati duo of Marc Marquez and Bagnaia thus led the field in the early stages. In the battle for third place, Acosta prevailed against Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and set off in pursuit of the Ducati duo.
Quartararo then had to defend himself against Enea Bastianini (Tech3-KTM). At the front, Marc Marquez controlled his teammate, but Bagnaia was able to keep up and lost little ground in the first half of the race.
At the end of the fourth lap, Bastianini finally overtook Quartararo and moved up to fourth place. Behind them, the Aprilia duo of Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) and Bezzecchi battled for sixth place.
At the halfway point, Marc Marquez finally turned up the heat and pulled away at the front, while Bagnaia ran into trouble. He spun at the exit of Turn 4 and was overtaken by Bastianini and Quartararo. That left him in fifth place.
But then Marc Marquez also slowed down, spun and let Acosta pass. This meant that both Ducati factory riders lost positions! Marc Marquez lined up behind Acosta and followed him like a shadow – to avoid getting a tire pressure penalty like Bagnaia.
Marc Marquez was able to ride significantly faster and overtook Acosta in the penultimate lap in the Omega. From then on, the Spaniard didn’t put a foot wrong and rode to his eleventh sprint victory of the year. However, he was under investigation for tire pressure.
Marc Marquez himself gave the all-clear immediately after the race: “Yes, we did it. That’s why I’m smiling. It was really on the limit, and yes, we were comfortable. Then I saw that the pressure wasn’t in the right range.“
”I pushed a few laps on the brakes, but then I saw that it was too risky to get the right pressure in the tires. So I decided to slow down, just stay super close to Acosta to raise the temperature.” With Acosta in second and Bastianini in third, KTM had riders on the sprint podium for the first time ever this season. The new KTM CEO, Gottfried Neumeister, was also in Brno this weekend.
Bezzecchi finished fourth, followed by Quartararo and Raul Fernandez. Bagnaia was unable to make up the lost places in the second half of the race and finished seventh. The remaining World Championship points went to Johann Zarco (LCR-Honda) and Pol Espargaro (Tech3-KTM).
Brad Binder (KTM) finished tenth. World champion Jorge Martin (Aprilia) finished eleventh in his first race in three months. Alex Marquez eventually came in 17th. Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) crashed out.
An investigation was also launched into Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) regarding minimum front tire pressure. However, neither of them were in the World Championship points. According to the race organizers, everything was in order with them as well.
With this result, Marc Marquez extended his World Championship lead over his brother Alex to 95 points (to the World Championship standings).
The 21-lap Grand Prix starts on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. (to the starting grid).
