Marc Márquez was convinced today at Motegi that he had taken pole position but the notification that his lap had been canceled, for exceeding track limits, came too late, preventing the rider from returning to the track, and now Race Direction has justified what happened.
Crash.net questioned the organization on the subject, with Mike Webb, Director, issuing a statement justifying the delay: ‘The FIM MotoGP Stewards entered it into the system right away, but unfortunately, a software glitch interrupted this process and meant the lap then needed to be cancelled manually, causing a delay to the notification’.
The cause of this failure was identified and the system adjusted to ensure that it doesn’t happen again: ‘The track limits sensor was triggered immediately, which leads to the automatic cancellation of any lap. The FIM MotoGP Stewards entered it into the system right away, but unfortunately, a software glitch interrupted this process and meant the lap then needed to be cancelled manually, causing a delay to the notification’.
Recall the moment in the following video: