The crash king Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) is seen by many as a bad role model for the youngsters due to his driving style, which some observers describe as inconsiderate towards his opponents. In Texas, however, he was once again the boss on the track and won the MotoGP race of 2021 by a large margin.

Deniz Öncü punished – his role models remain unmolested

On the same weekend MotoGP competed in Austin / Texas and WorldSBK in Portimão and there were highly questionable incidents at both events. One of them happened on Saturday in the first race of the Superbike World Championship. Toprak Razgatlioglu apparently deliberately hit Jonathan Rea with full force in the side. It was only thanks to his motocross experience and his vehicle control that the six-time record world champion was able to avoid a fall. A little later he crashed badly in the target curve without outside influence, and the first incident may have contributed to it. In retrospect, you can’t really say it, but some observers were amazed that the Turk was not punished for his ramming blow. After the race, second-placed Scott Redding complained in the podium interview, not for the first time, about Toprak’s ruthless and unfair attacks. Apparently, however, the FIM stewards looked the same way on this occasion as they did in a similar incident in Most.

When the audience and commentators in Austin caught their breath on October 3, 2021 – the scene was reminiscent of Jason Dupasquier’s fatal accident in Mugello, and it was a small miracle that there were no seriously injured or dead pilots.

Case two – this time with severe punishment of the culprit
A day later, an accident happened in Moto3 that could have been fatal. With Deniz Öncü, the culprit was a fan and compatriot of Razgatlioglu, who, like Marc Marquez, has quite a lot of admirers. With a ruthlessness bordering on idiocy, the Tech 3 KTM rider drove his opponent straight into the line and in front of the front wheel. It was Jeremy Alcoba, who had no chance to evade and had a terrible crash, which fortunately went smoothly for him. However, if he, like the Swiss Jason Dupasquier, had been hit by a subsequent pilot or his bike in Mugello, he would have been seriously injured or dead. Exactly the same applies to Andrea Migno and World Championship leader Pedro Acosta, who could no longer evade the Spaniard’s Honda and also fell violently. In contrast to the WSBK World Championship leader Razgatlioglu, the FIM cracked down on Öncü and banned him for the next two races.

John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Honda) would have actually been the winner according to a logical evaluation, one lap before the second cancellation of the Moto3 GP in the USA – but FIM and Dorna preferred a Spaniard and if necessary the rules will be twisted.

Conclusion: You hang the little ones and a Spaniard has to win

The big and at the same time famous role models of the young riders usually get away with impunity. At least that is how many observers understand it after the unequal treatment of two similarly reckless actions. Unbelievable, had Rea fallen and injured himself, the World Cup would have been decided prematurely. But there was another strange and extremely questionable act by the FIM at the Moto3 Texas Grand Prix. Because the race had to be stopped twice in a row with red flags, it was a matter of deciding who should be the winner afterwards. Actually, this case was clear from the start for all those in the know. In such cases, the status before the second termination of the race, caused by the outrage of the young Turk, applies. But far from it, the supreme motorsport authority, which is very close to the Spanish-dominated Dorna, decided differently. She scored the race according to the status before the first demolition, with only 7 laps driven. It was doubly wrong that full points were awarded anyway. But at least it won a young Spaniard. After all, one or the other now understands why we have decided not to report in a live blog since such incidents. See also the often questionable and often unjust decisions on the subject of track limits.

Filmed by Jonathan Rea’s Kawasaki – Toprak Razgatlioglu drove clearly in the forbidden green area in the last race of Misano, but received neither a warning after this misconduct on the third lap nor the time penalty actually intended for a repetition of the track limit offence. WSSP 600 pilot Steven Odendaal, on the other hand, was penalized in the same case in the middle-class race. As a result, the South African lost his victory and only finished fifth, which is a sporting scandal of the purest quality.

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