MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez has warned race direction about the precedent set by the decision not to penalise Misano Moto2 race winner Augusto Fernandez.
Fernandez beat local hero Fabio Di Giannantonio in a breathless late-race duel and his victory meant he closed to 28 points of Marquez’s brother Alex in the Moto2 title race.
The manner of the win was controversial as Fernandez’s aggressive race-winning pass at Turn 14 came after he had run wide and onto the green paint at the right-hand Curvone corner in pursuit of Di Giannantonio.
Di Giannantonio, pictured below, believed Fernandez should have been penalised but his rival was allowed to keep the win following a stewards’ hearing because penalties are reserved for persistent track limits abuse.
“Of course in the end it’s the decision of the race stewards, but I think it’s one of the main things we will speak about in the Safety Commission,” Marquez said when asked whether he agreed with the verdict.
“Why? Because in the end, the green part is something that is out of the limits of the track, and the way that Fernandez – it doesn’t matter the rider – used [it] this time, it’s not fair.
“He used the exit of Turn 6 a lot when two laps remained – that means you gain also a little bit and it’s the last two laps, the front guy is pushing.
“Then if you keep these jokers for the end of the race, it’s not fair to use [then].
“Then of course the overtake in Turn 14 started in the fast corner of Turn 11 [Curvone], and this is, when you are riding in Misano, very easy to understand.”
Marquez said he had foreseen a similar turn of events in the MotoGP race at Misano, which wound up being decided in a thrilling duel between himself and Fabio Quartararo.
The championship leader said he had spoken to Honda team boss Alberto Puig and crew chief Santi Hernandez about the possibility of going outside track limits at Curvone in a late-race battle.
“During the race in Moto2, I was speaking with Alberto and Santi, and I was saying, I already predicted that [it] will be a fight against [Maverick] Vinales or Quartararo,” said Marquez.
“I said: ‘They are very fast at Turn 11. What happens if in the last lap I use the green [part] and I attack the last brake point [at Turn 14]?
“And they say, ‘it’s not fair, they will penalise you’. But then somebody did [it] in Moto2, and they didn’t penalise.
“But for me, if you open this window, [it] will be a lot of different things [happening] in the future.
“So we need to penalise this kind of actions, because in the last laps it’s not fair.”