Under investigation but not penalized, Marc Márquez flirted with the limits in Brno

Victorious for the eleventh time this season on Saturday, Márquez still had to relive the same situation as in Thailand at the start of the season, when he let his brother Álex pass for several laps in order to increase the pressure in his front tire. Having set out to ride alone on the Brno circuit, the #93 driver had to make this type of arrangement once again this Saturday.

Yet, once the finish line was crossed, the championship leader was under investigation! Could the calculations have been incorrect? The regulations stipulate that riders must spend at least 30% of the Sprint duration above the minimum pressure indicated by Michelin. If this is not the case, they are liable to an eight-second penalty. The data is doubled for the Grand Prix, with a minimum of 60% to exceed a certain pressure, and a 16-second penalty if it is not respected.

Le MotoGP benefits from a data reading every second, and while riders cannot see their tire pressure in real time, they have an alarm set on their dashboard, which disappears once the rider has spent enough time with the correct pressures. This is why Marc Márquez was not worried at all when he got off the bike and rightly so, since the investigation yielded nothing.

"I won't be penalized, that's why I'm smiling! We were really on the limit, I was riding very well but then I saw that we were under minimal pressure at the start of the race. I then decided to attack for a few laps under braking, and it wasn't enough to make it up. So I had to wait for Acosta, and stay very close to him to make the pressure up. Once I saw that it was within the rules, I attacked for the last two laps."

These rules, which were adopted in 2023, were introduced after it was observed that some teams, led by Ducati, were using very low tire pressures last season. These allow for more rubber surface area on the road, thus increasing performance, but too low a pressure poses potential safety issues, as the tires may not be able to withstand the loads placed on them. For example, Maverick Viñales (Tech3 KTM) lost his podium finish at the Qatar Grand Prix earlier this year for not respecting this specific rule.

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