“Big insect” to blame for startline tear-off incident

Australian Grand Prix winner Marc Marquez has explained a large insect on his visor was the cause of his slow getaway at the start of the Phillip Island MotoGP race.

The Gresini Ducati rider was forced to fight his way up the field from 13th in the first corner after a tear-off he had removed on the grid got caught beneath his rear tyre.

After hauling in and passing Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin to take the victory, Marquez explained his stressful moments just before the start.

“When I was setting the front device, I had a big insect here [in the middle of the visor] and I didn’t have clear vision,” said Marquez.

“I decided to remove it, thinking it would go to the [pit] wall with the wind. But it went to my rear tyre. I thought ‘that’s super unlucky, it cannot be like this’. But it was like this.

“[The understanding among] the riders is that it’s better not to remove tear-offs when we’re on the grid – both for [your own safety] and for others. But, as we know, Australia has super big insects! I didn’t have a choice.”

Watching from the second row was world champion Francesco Bagnaia, who said he understood the breach of tear-off etiquette.

“I saw that he was removing his tear-off but, when he tried to throw it away, he threw it on the wrong side because the wind was blowing that side,” said the factory Ducati rider. “So the wind blew it under his bike.

“He tried to remove it but it was under his bike and we were very close to the start. It wasn’t ideal. I saw it and I was thinking about it.

“We have spoken about not throwing away a tear-off on the starting grid, because of the issue [Jack] Miller had in 2020 at Misano.”

Miller was forced to retire from that race after a tear-off belonging to Fabio Quartararo got lodged in his bike’s airbox.

“But we never made a rule about it,” continued Bagnaia. “So it’s something more down to the rider’s feeling. I recognise that if you have a bug on your visor it’s impossible to see or it affects your concentration a lot, so it’s better to remove it.”

Thanks to the tear-off under his wheel, Marquez was unable to avoid spectacular wheelspin at the start. But his fast recovery set up his victory 27 laps later.

“It was a dangerous situation; there was a lot of smoke,” recalled Marquez. “After the start I tried not to move a lot because I knew that the other riders were coming [on both sides]. I tried to avoid any…