by M.C. – foto: @MotoGp | Something very remarkable, besides the competition itself, must have happened when the winner of the race is not the centre of attention and doesn’t feature in every photograph and news article. That is what happened at the Argentinian Grand Prix. The Briton Cal Crutchlow (LRC Honda Castrol) got his third triumph of MotoGP after being in the competition for eight seasons. After him came the French pilot Johann Zarco (Yamaha), and the Spaniard Alex Rins from Suzuki completed the podium.

Crutchlow did show his discontent with the lack of interest for his victory at a press conference but to no avail. The spotlight remained almost exclusively on another man; Marc Marquez. The current champion had the most hectic of races. Right at the start, he was penalised with a ride-through after a problem with his bike lead to a misunderstanding with a marshal. From then on he had to come back from behind, which made his driving yet more intense than usual. In his quest to climb up positions he performed some risky manoeuvres, pushing Aleix Espargaro out as a result.

Marquez’ brush with Rossi opens up old wounds

In his frenzied tour de force, Marquez also overtook Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) and when nothing seemed to get in the way of the Spanish champion, he ran into Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and sparks started to fly. The Honda pilot tried a narrow overtaking manoeuvre and touched the Italian, making him crash (although he returned to the race later on). The hostilities between them have now officially reopened. Marquez apologised during the race and when this was over, he went in person to the Yamaha box accompanied by his director Alberto Puig, but was rebuffed by Rossi’s team. In the end, Marquez was penalised with 30 seconds and left with no points.

A couple of days have passed and things still seem quite raw. Rossi has accused Marquez to be a threat to the sport while the Spaniard has been trying to ignore him. Rossi’s fans are outraged with Marquez and Honda fans argue that at least the latter had the decency to apologise and own up to his mistake, unlike Rossi two years ago after the famous kick… The cat is out of the bag.