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

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

A subsequent notification from Race Direction on Saturday morni⛦ng 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 a♛round the outside of the track with faster bikꦉes 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 yelloꦺw 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 mitiga🍃te the risk is tꦬo try and place the Long Lap area away from big braking zones or high-speed sections, but it's not always possible.

• Michelin💞: “This is the🧜 direction MotoGP should go…” - Exclusive
• MotoGP scღhedule change: “We are full atඣtack from P1” - Marc Marquez
• Brad Binder “can see MotoGP coming back to Kyalami”

Meanwhile, the number of Lo🅷ng Lap penalties now being𒈔 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 anoth🌺er Long L🥂ap.

“It’s worth doing [the Long Lap] at least once per weekend to know morওe 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 w⛦as 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 al෴ready see tha🅘t it was so tight in one point.”