Ducati MotoGP rider Marc Marquez has owned up to deliberately playing for an aborted start in the Grand Prix of the Americas when he suddenly ran off the grid into the pitlane for a change of bikes.
The MotoGP broadcast had to interrupt its intro as it captured the delirious moments of Marquez abandoning the grid and several riders following suit just as the race was about to head into its warm-up lap.
All but three riders on the grid had been planning to start on wets due to rain pre-race, but with pitlane exit long closed Marquez realised once the choice had already been made that it was the wrong choice.
The three outliers - Brad Binder, Enea Bastianini and Ai Ogura - were due to benefit hugely.
Yet MotoGP has had a rule since it had to navigate similar start chaos back in 2018 in Argentina - when everyone save for Jack Miller rushed to the pits for slicks and the start was aborted - that more than 10 riders starting from the pitlane in a scenario like this requires an aborted start.
"I really know the rules," Marquez told MotoGP.com afterwards. "And how to do, and how to be on the limit all the time.
"And yeah, I asked to [Marco] Rigamonti my chief mechanic, seven minutes before the start, if the second bike was ready. He told me ‘yes’. And then I said to him 'maybe I will leave the grid'. Why? Because I predicted when I will leave - I saw that the rain tyres were [already] not the correct strategy - and I predicted that when I will leave, more than 10 riders will follow me and then they'll stop the race. And that's what happened."
Eventual winner Pecco Bagnaia bolted for the pitlane when he saw what Marquez had done. Asked by The Race if he realised how close he'd come to a penalty, Bagnaia conceded that he was worried not enough riders would make that choice to force an aborted start.
"As soon as I started running, I just hoped that many more riders would follow," he said.
"I said 'if we are just two, I think some penalties could arrive'.
"But then I saw that many riders were following from the big screen, I said 'OK, they will not have time enough to remove the bikes from the grid'. So there will not be any penalty.
"And it's not clear on the regulations, this particular situation."
In his later debrief with the written media Marquez suggested he was pretty confident of coming back through the field even if he'd started from the pitlane.
"I was convinced about my strategy," he said. "If they didn’t follow me, I’d start last and I’d try to come back during the race because I had the pace."
The decision to gamble on forcing an aborted start was set to reward Marquez with a win - only for him to crash out from a commanding lead.
...but his calculation was wrong
The ironic caveat in the situation is that Marquez was actually wrong in his assessment of how many riders would follow him - yet still got the result he wanted.
Exactly 10 riders abandoned their grid slots for a change of bike - as Luca Marini in seventh, Fabio Quartararo in 11th and every rider from 13th down remained in their spots.
Under the MotoGP regulations, this does not necessitate an aborted start as prescribed in Article 1.18.1 - which specifies "more than 10 riders".
However, with much movement in the pitlane and Maverick Vinales puzzlingly running down the grid without a bike, race direction called off the start.
It led to a strong reaction from a "very upset" Davide Brivio, Ogura's team boss at Trackhouse, who felt race direction had mismanaged the start and cost his rider an extremely advantageous position.
Race director Mike Webb explained in a statement: “We called for a delay and then quick start procedure due to safety concerns. Given the number of riders, bikes and pit staff on the grid and in the pitlane area, it was impossible to start the warm-up lap.
"A new race start was the safest way to respond to the unprecedented circumstances at the start of the grand prix.
"We will analyse the situation together with the teams and revisit the regulations.”
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Second-place finisher and new championship leader Alex Marquez said the chaotic scenes showed a rule adjustment was needed.
“For everybody it was really like chaos and all that. And we need a clear rule for that. Because it's not - as Pecco said - it's not really clear,” he said.
“I didn't even know that that was possible, honestly speaking! I just followed the guys and that's it. So, we need to be more clear on that position. If they delay the start just for the chaos, it's not the correct way.
“If that’s in the rule you can do it, they need to do it, and they need to organise things better to be able to do that.
“Because it's not fair that somebody took the risk and then they make a start delay. Imagine if I was with slicks on the grid - you know?
“It was not fair. Everything needs to be more clear in that way.”
Sympathy for the foiled gamblers
Several of those who ran off the grid admitted feeling a little sorry for Binder, Bastianini and Ogura - the three riders who'd correctly picked slicks and never got chance to benefit from it.
“It’s true that it’s not a nice thing because maybe we f***ed up the race of Brad, Enea, these guys who put the money on the slicks," said Pedro Acosta, who added that he'd told his crew he'd do whatever Marquez did.
Binder did indeed feel hard done by, but also felt race control had little choice but to call the start off given how chaotic the grid had become.
"Unfortunately I don't call the shots. So I'd be wasting my time worrying about it, eh?" he said.
"Obviously I wasn't took stoked about the decision to call everyone off. Neither was my crew. It is what it is at the end of the day. S**t happens.
"It was probably a good call, it was safer for everybody at the end of the day."
Elsewhere in the field, there was just bemusement.
Fabio Quartararo was set to effectively start second as the second-highest placed qualifier who didn't abandon the grid, but as he was still on wets he'd have been facing a bleak race.
"For me it was completely a mess. I didn’t really see Marc first. I saw Joan [Mir]. I thought that maybe he forgot the chest protector or something. And then I saw everybody run," said Quartararo.
"I didn’t even know if it was possible to do that. I don’t know what exactly is the rule but if the start is delayed it was for something.
"Anyway I was on my bike and I was waiting."
