MotoGP riders found themselves characteristically split over whether Enea Bastianini's move on Jorge Martin to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Misano went beyond the limits of acceptable overtaking.
Bastianini's divebomb on Martin at Turn 4 on the final lap, which sealed the race for the former, left Martin incensed and feeling hard done by over a move he felt hadn't been on. Bastianini, for his part, acknolwedged he had been "on the limit" but believed he didn't step over it.
🚨 ONE LAP TO GO! 🚨@BESTIA23 FORCES @88JORGEMARTIN TO GIVE! 🤯#EmiliaRomagnaGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/l7zz01URvj
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 22, 2024
The stewards' panel headed up by Freddie Spencer - who is being replaced by Simon Crafar next year - agreed with the latter point of view, with Bastianini's move not even officially put under investigation, much less penalised.
Some riders were perfectly happy with it being so. Others were distinctly less impressed.
In Martin's corner
It was distinctly unsurprising that the rider most vocally sharing Martin's take on the situation was his great friend Aleix Espargaro - not just because of their friendship, but because Espargaro has been long on record as a rider not on board with the style of overtaking that requires contact.
"I don't understand. I'm very disappointed. I don't understand what the stewards' panel is doing," he vented. "I have really no words.
"One rider touched the other one, both riders went off-track, and they didn't even put it under investigation. No sense.
"And apart from the action, I'm a little bit worried, because the message they are sending to all riders is you can do whatever you want. You can touch riders, you can go off-track. And this is very dangerous. I still can't believe it, really."
They were backed up, albeit to a lesser extent, by Luca Marini, even while Marini acknowledged that he was happy enough with the outcome because it benefitted his friend and fellow VR46 Academy rider Pecco Bagnaia in terms of the title race.
"In my opinion, it's a little bit unfair, to push another rider out of the track and you just go over him, don't make the corner," he said.
"For sure for Pecco is better, so I'm happy, eh? I'm happy that Martin lost five points like this.
"We are going in a direction that every time it's more difficult to make overtakes, so I can understand that for Enea was difficult, this track is super difficult to overtake on.
"[But] if Martin doesn't pick up the bike, Martin crashes. So Martin has to sacrifice himself for Enea to get a penalty. If Martin crashes, Enea would get a penalty. If Martin doesn't crash, no penalty for Enea. But the move of Enea is still the same. This makes no sense for me."
In Bastianini's corner
Likewise unsurprisingly, many of MotoGP's more aggressive riders - and those who tend to consistently favour a laissez-faire approach to officiating - saw nothing wrong with what transpired.
"It's a racing incident, last-lap battle. If you would like to have a look at [Johann] Zarco on me on the last lap at Turn 14, or Diggia [Fabio Di Giannantonio] on me at Turn 14. That's racing. It happens throughout the whole grid," said KTM's Jack Miller.
"It's last lap for a race [win]."
Miller emphasised that under MotoGP's current rules this was the only way to get past someone unless you had the bike set-up to be able to "brake like an idiot".
"It's the issue nowadays with these f***ing bikes, you can't pass unless you make contact. And that's the way it goes.
"It's a racing incident, glad both stayed on."
Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo described it simply as "normal", and LCR Honda's Johann Zarco felt Bastianini "needed to try a move" and had no choice but to divebomb once he'd committed initially - because otherwise he would've either crashed into Martin or missed the corner.
Bagnaia, Bastianini's team-mate and an indirect beneficiary of the move, was also insistent the move had been fair game - and likened it to two moves from Martin during their title fight last year.
That's a lunge!!! 😱@88jorgemartin FORCES his way past @PeccoBagnaia 👊#IndianGP 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/vIiyym5byl
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 24, 2023
"I think it’s a race overtake, nothing strange, nothing different compared to what Jorge did in the past with me last season in Qatar and in India, he did the same. So I think it’s normal.”
That start! 🤯#QatarGP 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/X6UTkWCDE0
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 18, 2023
On the fence
There were several riders who did not object to the move in principle, but felt Bastianini going off-track in completing it is what pushed it into questionable territory.
These included Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez and Miguel Oliveira.
"The rules are clear," said Oliveira. "Once you are in a direct fight with the rider and you go on the green [paint outside the kerb], you need to give up the position.
"The fact is he didn't go on the green [paint] because it's not painted green there. But he didn't do the corner."
Oliveira quipped that Bastianini "knew exactly where to overtake" in avoiding the track limits policing that comes with touching the green paint at other turns.
It was pointed out by future stewards' chief Crafar, in his current role as MotoGP.com pundit, that Bastianini's brief off-track moment may have come as a result of him checking on Martin rather than being out of control coming into the corner - albeit whether this is something to be taken into consideration is a whole different debate.
Rookie Pedro Acosta - in typical Acosta fashion - reeled off several historical examples of moves he felt were similar that went unpunished, these moves being Valentino Rossi on Sete Gibernau at Jerez in 2005, Marc Marquez on Jorge Lorenzo at Jerez again in 2013 and Rossi on Lorenzo at Misano in 2016.
"No opinion. I would say no penalty, but it's true that he [Bastianini] didn't do this to me!" he acknowledged.
"Maybe if he did it to me, it would become another opinion. This time of overtaking, we saw many time ago - like Rossi with Gibernau, Marc with Lorenzo, or one battle here in 2016 with Rossi and Lorenzo. For this, all great riders in history have made overtakes like this.
"Was last lap, was fighting for victory. We are talking for two weeks that here it's difficult to overtake. I understand both sides. It's difficult to say when they didn't do it to me."
