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By Neil Morrison<br />
Espargaro after the Italian<br />
touched the Aprilia man early into<br />
the race. Johann Zarco was the<br />
subject of Dani Pedrosa’s ire after<br />
a first lap collision pushed the<br />
then Honda rider off-line, which<br />
resulted in him flying toward the<br />
clouds.<br />
But ultimately Marquez’s antics<br />
were what caused a change.<br />
“What else does he have to do<br />
to be black flagged? Remove the<br />
black flag from the rules, we are<br />
not using it,” said Espargaro the<br />
elder at the next race.<br />
There were subsequently heated<br />
exchanges at the Safety Commission<br />
meeting on the Friday at<br />
the Circuit of the Americas. As a<br />
result, Dorna, and Race Direction<br />
and the FIM Stewards, vowed to<br />
penalise each on-track incident<br />
one degree harsher than before.<br />
The results were immediate: Pol<br />
Espargaro and Marquez received<br />
grid place penalties during qualifying<br />
for round three. Scrutiny<br />
surrounding the decision making<br />
of the FIM Stewards intensified.<br />
This in turn led to the appointment<br />
of Freddie Spencer, who<br />
now heads the Stewards Panel,<br />
an appointment that allows Race<br />
Director Mike Webb to get on with<br />
the job of race directing.<br />
Such was the confusion regarding<br />
the start in Argentina, as riders<br />
scampered to pit lane to change<br />
from wet to dry tyres, rules regarding<br />
such situations were<br />
soon revised and clarified. From<br />
Mugello, it was determined a rider<br />
would have to start the race from<br />
his original grip position but serve<br />
a ride-through penalty.<br />
And while Marquez and Rossi<br />
were never going to reach the<br />
back slapping love-in levels of<br />
2013 in the wake of their Sepang<br />
contretemps, there had definitely<br />
been a thawing in relations prior<br />
to this encounter. Before then, the<br />
pair could occasionally be seen<br />
swapping brief exchanges in press<br />
conferences. Rossi even went as<br />
far as seeking the Spaniard out<br />
for compliments in parc fermé at<br />
Phillip Island the year before.<br />
This exchange put paid to that.<br />
From there, relations reverted<br />
to rock bottom. Rossi’s feelings<br />
could be handily surmised by the<br />
reaction of best friend Alessio ‘Uccio’<br />
Salucci in the Movistar Yamaha<br />
garage as Marquez approached<br />
post-race to offer an apology with<br />
Repsol Honda team manager Alberto<br />
Puig and personal manager<br />
Emilio Alzamora in tow.<br />
Even when he warred with Casey<br />
Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi<br />
didn’t reach for the extremes in<br />
his exchanges with the press as<br />
he did here. “He [Marquez] destroyed<br />
our sport,” “He doesn’t<br />
have any respect for his rivals”<br />
and “He hopes that you crash”<br />
were just a number of highlights<br />
from the verbal barrage he aimed<br />
at his great rival later that Sunday<br />
evening.<br />
Some may argue Marquez maintained<br />
a quiet dignity in the wake<br />
of it all. But a refusal to accept his<br />
wrongs from that afternoon did<br />
little to endear him to the watching<br />
public. It wouldn’t have done<br />
him any harm to acknowledge his<br />
role in part of the chaos that had<br />
played out. Instead his reaction<br />
was a little too adamant he was<br />
not in the wrong - a rare blemish<br />
in an otherwise near-impeccable<br />
year.
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