Pol Espargaro has apologised to Marc Marquez after impeding the Repsol Honda rider in practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Marquez was on a fast lap when he was hindered by Espargaro on the inside line at Turn 4, potentially costing him an automatic place in Qualifying 2. He eventually ended the session in 13th.
GasGas Tech3 KTM’s Espargaro received a three-place grid penalty for the incident, with FIM Stewards concluding: “You were observed to be riding slow online disturbing another rider at Turn 4.
“This contravenes the specific instructions given to MotoGP competitors and teams, disrupting the session, and is considered irresponsible riding.”
The penalty applies to Sunday’s main race and not the shorter Sprint race.
Espargaro is competing in his second MotoGP round this season since he suffered serious injuries in a crash at the season opener at Portimao in Portugal in March.
Marquez said he ‘fully understood’ Espargaro’s explanation for the incident given the lengthy period of time he was out of action.
Explaining his error of judgement, Espargaro said: “Apologies to Marc because still I am having quite a lot of problems to identify distances together with the speed.
“It sounds silly, but the speed with these bikes, the guys are coming super-fast; I am not able to control how close they are coming behind because they are pushing and I am not.
“I left him some space but I was more inner on the line, but I didn’t give him enough space and I left it too late,” he added.
“I accept the penalty and I am going to start three positions back on Sunday, but this is not important; it’s important to keep riding and again, my apologies to Marc.”
Espargaro spoke to Marquez afterwards and said there was no bad blood between them.
“I was talking to him and he understands me because he has been away, and he told me that he understands this completely because it happened to him as well,” he said.
“It’s difficult to understand for the people looking at us, but it is the speed these bikes are coming and it’s really difficult even to be outside of the line.
“Especially at the end of the session when everything is happening so fast and the adrenaline is so high, thinking is really complicated so as I’ve said, my apologies.”
Marquez, who was team-mates with Espargaro at Honda last season, accepted that he had not acted intentionally.
“I fully understand what happened to Pol because when you are a long time out at home and you are not riding this kind of bike – I have experience in the past – from the outside it looks like ‘what’s he doing’, but I fully understand,” said the Honda man.
“It’s so difficult to take the reference, difficult to understand the speed when you are a long time out of the track, so no worries, but still the rules are the rules.”
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