CycleOnline catches up with a handful of top Aussie racers to discuss the Marquez versus Lorenzo incident.
The final lap, final corner clash between Honda’s Marc Marquez and Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo has certainly raised some debate amongst the motorcycle fraternity. Within the MotoGP paddock the opinions have been mixed – some considered it hard, but fair, others felt the rookie went a bit too far.
We quizzed four of Australia’s top racers on the sport’s current hot topic.
Glenn Allerton – Next Gen Motorsports BMW
I think Lorenzo should have been smarter than that. He was reading the pit board, and he knew that Marquez was coming. On the last corner – especially a corner like that when you come from a right hand corner and lead out into a left, he basically came from being on the inside leading into the turn, the just opened the corner right up and left the door wide open. So, when you’ve got a guy like Marquez behind you, the last thing you do is open up the door and allow him to see some daylight up the inside, because he’s going to go for it.
And yeah, the contact was pretty harsh, but I believe that Lorenzo left the space there, so it was his problem. If you see a gap and it’s the last lap, last turn and you don’t go for it you’re not a racer. I think the problem with the contact is that it happens so fast on the bike, that if, maybe someone runs clean into the back wheel and takes you out, maybe there should be a penalty, but when they made contact, Marquez was basically all the way up the side so he’d allowed enough room for Marquez to get his bike beside him, almost to the point of being level. I wouldn’t change it, if you do, you just open the floodgates for people to whinge and you have guys second-guessing their own passing moves in future.
Wayne Maxwell – Team Suzuki
Obviously we’re not messing about. There’s big dollars on the line and there is a lot of effort behind the scenes from the riders and teams so it’s a massive commitment for everyone. Marquez’ pass was hard but I think that probably only because it was for second place, and that it is early on in the year. It might have been a little bit over the top but that’s racing. For Marquez, payback’s going to be a bitch when Lorenzo really wants to get by him. He had to overcommit to pull up along side of him. He knew he was there, he had to be beside him in the braking area. At the end of the day I think it was smart – fair and reasonable. It will go down in history and people will look back on that in years to come.
I don’t think they needed to look at it any closer. Where does it stop and start? It’s only because it was at the front that there was really close attention on it. If it was in the mid-pack there wouldn’t have been as many cameras, I mean it happens in Moto2 and Moto3 all the time. Look at the Jack Miller incident in Moto3. There was no penalty there where maybe there should have been a closer look at it. The other guy was obviously way over-committed and nearly stood the bike up to run him off the track. He could have held a much tighter line and given Jack plenty of room. Whereas Marquez as all about timing – he hit him right at the perfect time and they were able to go on.
I think if it was for a race win, obviously race wins for a smaller championship like ASBK count, you’d definitely have a look. If I was the rider in front I wouldn’t have given it up as easy as Lorenzo. I’d have taken us both down. Lorenzo could have easily turned that into an incident and made Marquez look 10 times worse if he had have just kept turning over the top of him, so he played it smart, he knew he needed to finish. And I think payback’s going to be a bit of a bitch.
Broc Parkes – Yamaha Racing with Yamalube
I think Lorenzo left the door open a little bit. Marquez is young, it’s his home race, and he’s going to be ambitious. It was borderline. It was a big move. He was just hungry and wanted it. If Lorenzo wasn’t there, there was no way he was ever going to make the corner. But for me, it was a bit much. Maybe the officials should have looked at it a bit closer and given him a warning or something. He’s got a bit of history, with what went on with [Thom] Luthi and [Simone] Corsi and such, I think he got into a bit of trouble over that. He is the real deal though. I remember seeing him in 125s and I knew he would be special. When Casey left I was a bit worried that there would be no one to fill that gap but Marquez is definitely spicing things up.
Daniel Falzon – Caterpillar EPS Yamaha
I think the pass was ambitious but Lorenzo did leave a pretty wide gap going into the last turn. You’d think a world champion would think about that last corner, especially with Marquez being the young gun who is going to take any opportunity. I think he should have closed the door. It was a little bit rough but I think it was pretty fair play. He was the better rider that day, as much as Lorenzo would be hating it, I think that’s the reality. I don’t think Marquez intended to make heavy contact. He came into the corner too hot and he was obviously going to run wide.
I think it’s just a lack of experience for Marquez on the MotoGP bike, not knowing how close he would need to be. Even Lin Jarvis said that it was a fair move, and he’s obviously on Lorenzo’s side, if he’s saying it’s a fair move it’s pretty conclusive. It’s a great new rivalry. I was really not looking forward to the MotoGP this year without Casey Stoner in it, he added that bit of controversy to the racing because he never really held back his opinion. To have that rivalry on track – Lorenzo and Marquez – not the Rossi and Stoner rivalry, is going to be really interesting to see.