P22
IN
THE
WIND
LORENZO'S SHOW
J
orge Lorenzo turned Devil's
Advocate in the pre-event
press conference for the Malaysian Grand Prix, creating a moment of puzzling but revealing
theatre as he wielded sarcasm
and irony with as straight a face as
any aspirant actor could manage.
Amid general murmurs of approval for the single penalty point
laid on Marc Marquez by Race
Direction, he raised a voice of
dissent, saying the penalty was
"too much."
Later invited to expand, the
performance began in earnest.
His preamble acknowledged
that Marquez "had some little
problems in Moto2, with [Ratthapark] Wilairot and some other
riders, and also in braking in MotoGP," but this was simply due to
inexperience.
Rather than the punishment,
Marquez should have been rewarded with an extra championship point, to encourage others
to adopt the same tactics, "because the safety of the riders
doesn't matter so much, and we
Jorge Lorenzo
wasn't happy
with the onepoint penalty
imposed on
Marc Marquez
for his Aragon
incident with
Dani Pedorsa.
can have a better show."
Marquez looked increasingly
discomfited alongside while Valentino Rossi stifled giggles as
Lorenzo gave a brief run-down of
the rookie's indiscretions so far.
"The Jerez action was a great
show; looking at the marshals
running like chickens at Silverstone was a great show. Laguna
Seca, he went through Valentino
outside the track… was a great
show too. I think they should incentivize these kind of actions to
make an example to young riders."
Asked for a response, Marquez looked sheepish as he
said: "Great joke – heh heh."
"It's not a joke," said Lorenzo,
later adding that his target had
not been Marquez, but Race Direction.
Michael Scott
MARQUEZ, HONDA PUNISHED
T
he punishment to Marc Marquez and HRC was handed
out after a 30-minute Race Direction hearing in Malaysia, with
Dani Pedrosa in attendance, to
examine the circumstance of the
Aragon touch and consequent
crash that ruined the older rider's
fading title hopes.
The rider – Marquez - was all
but exonerated, while the bike
took the blame.
Marquez was handed a slightly notional punishment: a single
penalty point added to the two
he earned at Silverstone, where
he crashed after missing yellow
flags, endangering marshals.
One more will occasion a backof-the-grid start.
More surprisingly Honda was
hit harder, blamed for a machine
fault that shouldn't have been
possible. The wheel-speed-sen-
