CaixaCatalunya Repsol's Marc Marquez (Photo: Honda Pro Images)

So, exactly which FIM rule did Marc break at the Catalunya? Actually there is only one rule governing rider conduct during practice qualifying, and racing. It is rule 1.21.2, the FIM Sporting Code's version of the Golden Rule: "Riders must ride in a responsible manner which does not cause danger to other competitors or participants."

The persons charged with enforcing this singular rule are the members of Race Direction, headed up by the Permanent Race Director. What every Race Director hopes for is a straight-forward race with a clear winner with no safety or discipline calls required. New Zealander Mike Webb, in his debut season as Permanent Race Director in the FIM's Grand Prix Roadracing Championship, found himself chairing the Race Direction meeting from Hell at the close of racing at the Gran Prix of Catalunya with a very important issue to address. The MotoGP race passed without incident and with a single overtaking for the lead before Jorge Lorenzo put the race out of Dani Pedrosa's reach. A Race Director's dream…no incidents, no protests, no inquiries.

But when the final MotoGP protocol was finished, Race Direction sat down to take up "the Márquez question."

During the race, note had been taken of an early alleged "irresponsible" pass by Márquez on Iannone. But no action was taken at the time -- just another black mark against Marc. He has become a marked man after being involved in some controversial situations, but, until now, has never been penalized. Whether he was "officially" warned or not in Qatar for his pass on Luthi is not entirely clear either because, although this is what is written uncontested in the English-language press, when I wrote the same thing in Spanish, I received a terse email from a Dorna employee who told me I was wrong -- that he had not been warned. Now this same employee says that Marc was, in fact, given an official warning in Qatar, at least that’s what I’m told in English, whereas in Spanish the softer word "advertencia" is still used instead of the more ominous "amonestación." (At least the DMG only has English to deal with.)

So it’s unclear just what it means to be "warned." Just as unclear is the situation in which Marc was given a one-minute penalty in Catalunya.

With just over three laps to go the group of four -- Iannone, Márquez, Luthi and Espargaró -- battling for the win in Moto2, sat up to brake for the Caixa left-hander. Iannone led on the Speed-up, Marc was second on his Suter, but Luthi (Suter) slipped up the inside on the entry to the Caixa corner and Márquez was on the gas hard to close back up on climb up to the first of the two "Stadium Sectio" right-handers.

What happened next looks and still looks to me like a very normal, although violent, racing incident. Márquez lost the front, leaving a long blackie on the track, but he saved the crash losing speed and running off line. Espargaró on the Kalex saw the gap and went for it just as Márquez swooped back down on the racing line. Márquez was just ahead when the two bikes collided and Espargaró had his bike knocked out from under him and crashed hard. Márquez managed to stay on but had lost too much ground to contest the win with Iannone, the eventual winner, and Luthi, who took the 20 points for second and increased his points lead.

Márquez was third, or was he? The crawl across the bottom of the screen said that Race Direction was "investigating" the incident between numbers 93 and 40.

The podium went ahead with Márquez third but after most of the race stories had been written and the final interviews broadcast, rumors came drifting through the Media Centre and immediately entered into Twitterdom. First there was talk of an unspecified penalty. Then it was a 20 second penalty and finally a one minute penalty that dropped Márquez out of the points and promoted his teammate, Esteve Rabat, to third. The organizers released a revised FIM results sheet and a brief explanation. Márquez had ridden "in an irresponsible manner" and exposed Espargaró to danger.