Alex Marquez: All Long Laps are dangerous

Zarco was very lucky to avoid serious injury when he was struck by Marquez’s fallen bike as he slowly exited the pits during Friday practice for the German Grand Prix.

It wasn’t an isolated incident, with Marc’s brother Alex Marquez narrowly avoiding the sliding machine of Maverick Vinales in an almost identical encounter as the Gresini Ducati rider left the pits earlier in the day.

A subsequent notification from Race Direction on Saturday morning made clear that it is the responsibility of riders leaving pit lane to 'make a safe pit exit', adding that the blue flag 'waved for the rider in pit lane to indicate there are riders approaching' turn 1 on track 'must be respected'.

But the German pit exit incidents also highlighted what might happen if a rider serving a Long Lap penalty in a race, which also involves tiptoeing around the outside of the track with faster bikes approaching from behind, were to be taken out by a fallen machine.

“All the Long Laps for me are dangerous because if somebody crashes inside, they will take you out,” confirmed Alex Marquez.

“But it's like it is and you know that when a guy is making a Long Lap [ahead of you], you need to take it like a yellow flag [and back off]. But it's difficult to do that in the race because you are trying to push every lap.”

The best way to mitigate the risk is to try and place the Long Lap area away from big braking zones or high-speed sections, but it's not always possible.

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Meanwhile, the number of Long Lap penalties now being awarded also means more riders are trying out the penalty lane - which adds around 2-3sec to a lap time - during practice, to avoid the fate of Moto2 rider Alonso Lopez at Mugello.

Seeking to minimise the time lost after being punished for taking down Sam Lowes, Lopez charged into the Long Lap too hot and drifted outside of the penalty lane markings, meaning he then had to serve another Long Lap.

“It’s worth doing [the Long Lap] at least once per weekend to know more or less what’s going on,” said Alex Marquez.

“[What Lopez did] is understandable because you have nerves, you want to make the Long Lap really fast, he was fighting for victory and he was also thinking that the Long Lap was not fair. So everything can affect you, and he was too optimistic going in.

“I tried out [the Long Lap] in Mugello and I could already see that it was so tight in one point.”