Marquez defends Lorenzo: “He wasn’t out of control”

Marc Marquez has sprung to the defence of Jorge Lorenzo following the controversial Catalunya MotoGP crash he triggered that took down his Repsol Honda team-mate’s key title rival Andrea Dovizioso.

A fourth win of the season has seen Marquez take another significant step towards the 2019 MotoGP World Championship title, his cause aided by Dovizioso suffering a DNF at the hands of Lorenzo on lap two.

Lorenzo was attempting to pass Maverick Vinales for third when the front-end of his Repsol Honda folded beneath him under braking, causing him to clip Dovizioso’s Ducati in an incident that also took down Vinales and Valentino Rossi.

With Marquez largely unchallenged thereafter as he kept it clean for victory – in turn multiplying his points lead from 12 points to 37 – the Spaniard took the side of Lorenzo when asked to comment on the crash

Insisting he made an error that is ‘easy’ to commit at Turn 10, Marquez adds that his rivals were unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Of course, if you watch it people will say ‘what is Lorenzo doing?’ but for me it is not like this,” he explained after saying he had watched the incident back.

“Lorenzo was in the line, unlucky for him he loses the front and Dovi and Vinales are out of their line, so they were there and the bike hit them.

Going on to compare it to a similar incident four years ago when Lorenzo was on the receiving end from contact by Andrea Iannone, Marquez suggests the slipstream when coupled to the heavy fuel tank likely contributed to the misjudgement.

“When you have two or three MotoGP bikes in front, the slipstream is there and can happen like what happened at the end of the straight in Australia or four years ago when Iannone took Jorge. In fact, the action from Iannone to Jorge was worse.

“Lorenzo wasn’t out of control but unlucky for them he lost the front, which is easy to do there, plus the fuel tank...”

Ironically, Marquez’s words come after the pair briefly fell out in FP3 when he felt Lorenzo had held him up on a fast lap, the champion exchanging some fevered gesticulation in response.