The start of Sunday’s Americas MotoGP at C꧅OTA descended into chaos as around half the grid abandoned their bikes and sprinted to the pits for slick tyres, forcing a race del🐷ay.

Pole qualifier 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Marc Marquez triggered the stampede when he realised wets were the wrong choice, later revealing he gambled on more than ten riders followi🍌ng him to get the star𒅌t delayed.

That's based on rules, brought in after the last grid exodus at Argentina 2018, that states: “In the interests of safety, when more than 10 riders will start the race from pit lane exit, the start will be delayed and a new start procedure will take place.”

However, since the warm-up lap had not yet begun, the procedure for a rider leaving the grid to change tyres (rain-slick) is given as: “Start the warm up lap from pit lane, take your qualifying grid position, and serve a ride through penalty in the race.”

Only if riders Ieft the grid after the warm up lap would they be required to "start the race from pit lane and serve a ride through penalty in the race."

Shortly after the three-minute board wܫas signa⛎lled, Marquez ran off the grid, with others following.

By the time the start was officia🐼lly delayed at 13:59'44, or 16 seconds before the warm-up lap was due to begin🐓, Marquez was among eight riders who had changed bikes and were ready to start the warm-up lap from the end of pit lane.

S🧸o presumably the '10 rider' rule wouldn't have been activated on Sunday, with those at the end of pit lane still due to start on the grid (and serve a ride through), while roughly twelve others looked s🎃et to start the warm-up lap as normal from the grid.

Fortunately for those who bolted from the✃ grid, the scale of the chaos - including Maverick Vinales running back down the grid in search of his bike - meant Race Direction instead delayed the start on the grounds of “safety concerns.  

"Given the number of riders, bikes and pit staff on the grid and iღn the pitlane area, it was impossible to start the Warm Up lap.

“A new race start was the safest way to respond to the unprecedented circumstancesꦫ at the start of the Grand Prix. “

B🧜ut it meant those who had already chosen slicks on the grid - Brad Binder, Enea Bastianini 🃏and Ai Ogura - plus others ready to start on wets were denied any advantage since the restart took place in the original grid order.

Bagnaia: "I Just Hoped Many Riders Would Follow"

Eventual race winner 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Francesco Bagnaia adm💝itted he feared a penalty as he fled the grid.

“As soon as I started running, I just hoped that many riders would follow,” said the Italian, who had reacted to team-mate෴ Marquez. “Because I said, if we are just two, I think some penalty could arrive.

“But then I s🙈aw ma🌌ny riders were following from the big screen. So I said, ‘they will not have time enough to remove the bikes from the grid, so will not be any penalty’.

“It’s not clear in the regulations this par🉐ticular situation.”

Alex Marquez: "It Was Not Fair"

Runner-up and new title leader 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Alex Marquez was another to benefit from the delay but felt it was “not fair” to those left on the grid and that the rules ne🦩ed to be much clearer in future.

“I think for everybody it was really chaos,” he said. “We need a clear rule for that because as Pecco said, it’s not really clear. I didn’t even know t💝hat was possible, honestly speaking!  I just followed the other guys. So, we need to be more clear.

“If they delayed the start just for the chaos, it’s not the correct way. If that’s in the rule, you can do it, they need to do it and they need to organise better.💝 It’s not fair that somebody takes a risk [with tyre choice on the grid] and then th♎ey make a start delay.

“Imagine if I was with slicks on the grid. It was 🎐not fair. Everything needs to be more🌊 clear.”

Bagnaia added: “The only guys who were prepared were KTM, Binder and Enea and Trackhouse [Ogura], who were alr♔eady with slicks on the grid. So I imagine their situation, they could be much more angry about what happened.”

With riders and teams left confused, Race Director Mike Webb has pl𝕴edged to re-evaluate the regulations.

“We will analyse the situation together wi🅷th the teams and revisit the regulations,” Webb confirmed.