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Those expecting a decision today on the two long lap penalties imposed on Marc Marquez after the incident caused in Portimao will be disappointed. The FIM Appeal Stewards have in fact decided to refer the case to the MotoGP Court of Appeals.
Let's summarize what happened. After the race in Portugal, the FIM Stewards decided to punish Marquez with two Long Lap Penalties, but in the communication they wrote that he would have to serve them in the GP of Argentina, which however he will miss due to injury. Two days later, on Tuesday 28 March, the Stewards issued another document, entitled 'application of the sanction', in which they explained that Marc should have done the two long laps in the first race in which he took part in when he returned. Honda therefore appealed not against the penalty itself, but due to the fact that first something had been communicated and then something else. The intent is clearly not to serve the penalty due to a technicality.
Today the Appeal Stewards heard the reasoning of the Honda team manager Alberto Puig who essentially insisted on two points: the validity of the second document (the one named 'application of the sanction') and the request to comply with the first (the one which said that the penalty was to be served in Argentina).
The two Appeal Stewards (Paul King and Armando Marques) have decided to refer the case to the MotoGP Court of Appeal. They therefore did not reject the appeal but, as required by the regulation, they preferred that another body deal with it in more detail.
With the matter still pending, the timing is decisive because if Marquez were to return at Austin (the GP is scheduled in two weeks) the decision should have already been made by then.
There is a precedent, which refers to the 'spoon case' which involved Ducati in 2019. After the appeal of the other manufacturers, the result of the GP (won by Andrea Dovizioso) remained sub iudice until the Court of Appeal. To do this, it brought the parties together in a hearing and did it quickly: in less than two weeks (in that case he would have raced in Argentina) it pronounced the sentence.
The hope is that the same will happen for Marquez.
