MotoGP, Marquez on the podium in Motegi touching the green: here’s why he wasn’t sanctioned

Despite having overstepped the track limits in Turn 4 on the last lap, Marc was not forced to give up the position to Bastianini thanks to 36, providential, thousandths of a second ahead of the Rimini man

After denying him pole position, a pass on the green could have also cost Marc Marquez the podium in the Japanese Grand Prix, which the 31-year-old finished behind winner Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin.

Having started from the ninth slot on the grid, the eight-time Spanish champion managed to recover to third place overall, holding off Enea Bastianini until the checkered flag. Under which the Rimini rider passed just 536 thousandths of a second behind the Desmosedici GP23 ridden by his Team Gresini rival.

It was precisely those 36 thousandths that proved providential for Marquez, as it allowed him to maintain third position despite having exceeded the limits of the track in Turn 4 during the last lap of the race.

According to the Stewards Panel guidelines, reported by our colleagues at Crash.net, passes on green on the last lap oblige the rider involved to give up a position, if he has not already gained a considerable disadvantage from leaving the track, only if the two riders fighting for the position in question are separated from each other by half a second or less.

“For riders closely contesting for a position, if a track limit infraction is made on the last lap (that the stewards determine has affected a race result, whether there is a change of position of not), the rider concerned must show a clear disadvantage. The guideline for ‘closely contesting’ is that the riders are separated by 0.500s or less at the time of the incident and at the finish line,” the report on the commissioners’ activity indeed reads.

Not the case of Marquez, then, who at the end of the race boasted a margin of more than half a second over Bastianini. Nor that of Brad Binder. In fact, the KTM rider was also investigated for committing the same infraction as the Gresini rider, but he did not have to surrender sixth position to Marco Bezzecchi, as the Romagnolo was more than 8 tenths away.