Marc Marquez's fourth place at Sepang did not seem extraordinary at the time, but it had the advantage of preserving a 21-point advantage for the Spaniard before the last Grand Prix, and above all of offering the title of Manufacturers' World Champion at Honda.
The manufacturers' title is not the most publicized because the real heroes are the drivers, but it is important for the industry. Honda won it with a current total of 332 points, while Ducati and Yamaha are in the middle of a fight for second place, with 303 points for the Italians and 301 for the Japanese. Aprilia and KTM are also fighting hard, arriving at the last GP tied on points with 64 points each.
For the drivers' title, the orders given to Jorge Lorenzo through the now famous " mapping 8 » provoked quite a bit of discussion. Livio Suppo, team manager of the Repsol Honda team on behalf of the HRC, but who officiated at Ducati at the time of Casey Stoner, does not hide his disagreement with this practice.
« I don't know if there were team instructions or not. What I do know is that Honda has always said it won't give team orders. For me, if a factory has a good relationship with a driver, if the driver is in agreement with this factory, he is able to consider alone what is good or bad to do for this factory. » said Suppo to tuttomotoriweb.com.
The Italian manager distinguishes between the voluntary choice of the driver and the order given by the team: “ It makes a big difference because it's nice to be free in life. Especially for a rider like Jorge who suffered so much to get his first victory with Ducati…
“It is clear that anything can happen in Valencia, but I can say that I am happy not to have to make this decision. »
Why give an order if there is such a gap in points between Marc and Andrea? How would Honda act? “ When the advantage is so big, the best thing is to play without team orders “, said Livio Suppo.
Photo © Red Bull
Source: tuttomotoriweb.com
