Did Bezzechi touch the green as well?

I'm not a fan of the rule, and it the case of the Moto2 race yesterday, I don't know that any advantage was gained. I'm also not sure Bezzechi didn't do exactly the same thing as Martin. I've watched the reply quite a few times, and while it is hard to see, it looks like Bezzechi went on the green as well. Has anyone seen a better video than what was provided during the race coverage? What I'm looking at is 54:40 or so in the Moto2 race video on Motogp.com.

 

I think he did touch but not as much. Hard to see in the replay.


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The rule is you are OK as long as some part of your tire is touching the white paint. If your tire goes completely in the green paint, you have exceeded track limits. I am pretty sure Bezzechi's tire was still touching the white paint, but I concur the video isn't conclusive. In that case, I believe it would go to the trackside stewards to call it and no way are they going to make a call that someone is outside track limits if they are not 100% sure. It is conclusive from the video that neither of Martin's tires were touching the white paint.

 

That being said, the rule (more specifically the enforcement of it) is dumb.

 

Man it's such a garbage rule. No one gained an advantage and they wouldn't even be riding there is they didn't pave everything for F1 cars. Bring back the grass and gravel!

And the yellow flags during qualifying making riders lose their lap times.... that's shit too. Should be a waving yellow if its real bad or just a standing yellow if there is a bike down/off somewhere. No passing but keep your lap or something. I mean, whats to stop a clever rider who has the pole from riding off into the gravel with a minute to go to prevent others from taking the spot?

 

So, you say he didn't gain an advantage, but if that was grass & dirt instead of pavement would he have spun on the rear tire, lost drive and lost a position? Possible, and maybe even likely. The extra pavement is there for safety reasons and/or for F1, not so you can run off the track exiting a corner.

 

That is an interesting point. I haven't read the specific rule, but I've seen qualifying times excluded because a bike touched the green while still touching the white. Either way, there have been cases of poor enforcement of this rule.

 

You have to touch the green multiple times. If two riders touch the green at the same corner and lap, but only one rider already has a warning, then the warned rider gets the penalty. I think that you have two touches before you get a warning? And the next touch after the warning is the penalty.

 

They can still touch the green as long as some part of the tire touches the part that’s considered to be the race surface... Btw, there’s a picture on Twitter that clearly shows Bsack's front tire being completely on the green.

 

The alternative is to have no paved runoff as in the past. The current apron is FAR safer IMO and if you do not prevent a rider from using it as more track they will (wouldn't you?) thus negating the safety feature. Not dumb at all just hard to enforce.

 

Its an automatic penalty (regardless of previous warnings) if it occurs on the last lap.

 

I think lost in all of this is the class that Martin showed - I always liked him but now am a real fan.

 

Shoya agrees.

 

He is going places. It was going to be 2 x KTM#88 winners, too. Wonder if that has ever happened before.

 

The green paint rules are a good compromise for safety. The riders shouldn't be allowed to go faster because of extra 'safety pavement'.

The rules aren't dumb at all.

 

I agree the green paint rules are a good compromise assuming the layout makes sense and the enforcement is consistent. IMO, the corner in question for this race is marked similar to one Rossi and others had an issue with at the British GP last year(see the picture in the link).
https://sports.yahoo.com/motogp-alters-track-limits-boundary-085533921.html

 

1) The apron end (and paint) do not take into consideration the path of a motorcycle at that point.
2) The apron requires a change in course to maintain the track.

 

Should be no different than if you run over a curb on corner exit and the curb ends where the grass & dirt begin. You can run on the curb, but generally not the grass & dirt. You have to correct back onto the racing surface. If you can't do that, then you ran wide and messed up. Don't blame the paint, blame your line.

 

That's the big problem: consistency. And it looks even worse when the controversy occurs in a situation where grass or gravel would not have changed the result. In this particular case, maybe wet grass might've made a difference. But it wasn't a wet race. So the injustice of the inconsistent way the rule is applied was made even more blatant. The only difference between the artificial turf and gravel in this case is that Bezzechi might reuse that face shield for next practice (unless the Sky team has Broome-level budget).

 

I just looked at Jorge Martin's twitter and saw the picture. To me, it looks like Remy should have won the race based on the rules.