Blog

Even the Abu Dhabi Auto Racing League

Red Bull Junior Cup championship leader Maximo Coelz has been suspended from the next round of the MotoGP class at the Dutch TT Championship in three weeks.

16-year-old Marc Marquez, a two-time European Talent Cup champion, will miss both races at the Assen circuit after causing a horrific crash at the finish line during Sunday’s second race in his class at the Italian Grand Prix.

The crash can be seen at approximately 39:30 in the race broadcast below.

Quills took off from the fast final corner at Mugello and immediately began jostling for position while running to the line, trying to cut off the stream of his pursuers.

He cut hard across the track, straight into the path of South African Roche Moodley – sending Moodley on a collision course with Alvaro Carpi before a second collision sent the South African down.

He narrowly dodged the oncoming machinery, walked away damaged but not broken by the fall – and Quills, who was able to recover from the initial impact, crossed the line in fifth place as Argentinian Valentin Pironi took the win.

An immediate concern Given that it has only been three years since Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier was killed at the Mugello circuit when he was struck by his tracking machine after a crash, it was unsurprising that this led to outrage within the MotoGP paddock, with a number of riders calling for Quiles to be punished immediately for causing the fall.

“We are very lucky today,” Aprilia factory rider Aleix Espargaro said afterwards when asked by The Race about the accident. “It was crisp and full in the middle of the straight.

“It’s nothing against him, he’s just a child, but he has to learn. If no one teaches him, it will be a disaster.”

With riders already warned of the dangers of changing the line aggressively exiting the final corner the day before, something that has also been raised this season in the JuniorGP series in which Cowells also races, the stewards took a dim view of his instigation of the incident, handing him a two-race ban to be served in Assen after “it was found that he had caused an accident by swerving into the line of another rider at the exit of Turn 15.”

Part of the Vertical Management group set up by Marc and Alex Marquez, Quiles is widely recognized as one of the best – if not the best – talent on the junior ladder under the Grand Prix classes.

The 16-year-old was quoted as saying he was “really sorry” about contacting Moodley.

At the moment, Coyles holds fifth place in the second Mugello race, meaning he leads the championship by eight points over Brian Uriarte with eight rounds remaining.