Bezzecchi's slap: the marshal responds. Rossi and Marini have differing opinions

The debate over the disqualification handed to Marco Bezzecchi is still alive in the MotoGP paddock. The rider and Aprilia publicly apologized for what happened, and peace was made with the marshal, who understood the tension of the moment. The point of view of Valentino Rossi and the other VR46 Academy pupils.

It was the final laps of the Sprint in Brno; Bezzecchi was solidly in fifth place when he lost control of his RS-GP, ending up in the gravel at Turn 3. A normal racing incident up to that point, but the episode became unusual when the track marshals approached the bike to lift it off the ground. The Aprilia’s V4 engine suddenly revved to the max, Marco got nervous and gave two shoves to one of the marshals.

Race Direction did not hesitate to penalize Bezzecchi by excluding him from the Grand Prix, thus ruling him out of Sunday’s race. The MotoGP points leader therefore left the Brno weekend with a double zero, a heavy blow in the title chase. At that point, riders and insiders each expressed their opinion. Almost everyone agrees that the penalty handed to ‘Bez’ is fair, though severe.

Valentino Rossi was also present in Hungary and did not shy away from expressing his opinion on the altercation and the decision by the FIM Appeal Stewards. "I think Marco made a mistake, but honestly I didn’t expect him to be disqualified from the race," admitted the champion from Tavullia to MotoGP’s official channel. The Doctor accepted the harshness of the verdict with a simple "but that’s how it is."

For his part, Ladislav, the track marshal assaulted by Bezzecchi, explained in detail to TNT Sport how the misunderstanding arose. "He was definitely stressed and I understood his situation: he had crashed," the marshal commented. "So I did my job, I went to get the bike and lifted it. I pulled the clutch and tried to raise it because it was still running, but the bike started moving, so I wanted to put it back down and the engine revved."

The marshal believes the rider thought he had done it intentionally, whereas it was actually an involuntary act. Fortunately, the matter concluded with a kind gesture inside the race marshals’ box on Sunday morning. A visibly shaken and emotional Bezzecchi went looking for Ladislav at Turn 3 to apologize in person and give him his gloves. A commendable gesture that partially erased the rider’s bad act.

Pecco Bagnaia is probably his best friend in the paddock, in addition to being his next teammate. "I know how much adrenaline can affect you in certain moments, even if that doesn’t take anything away from what he did. You can’t lay hands on a marshal; they work for us. But the penalty was harsh—suspending him for one race is a lot. We’ve seen similar episodes in the past without such serious consequences."

Bagnaia is referring to what happened in Qatar in 2023 between Morbidelli and Espargaró. An episode promptly revisited by the VR46 rider right after the Brno race. Luca Marini, on the other hand, is inflexible in the face of his colleague’s act. "The penalty is fair. The fact is that something like this had never happened before: perhaps in the past there were episodes of shouting and shoving against stewards, but never anything this serious. I think it’s right to penalize him so severely... We must avoid violence, especially we riders, because this sport has values that go in the opposite direction."

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