Ducati responds to Aprilia’s fresh MotoGP team order claims in title battle

Ducati’s Davide Tardozzi has brushed off Aprilia’s latest claims that MotoGP team orders are a possibility for it in the title battle between Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez.

Martin comes into this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix with a slender two-point lead over Marquez in the standings with five rounds to go.

Though Martin beat Marquez in the Indonesian Grand Prix, he still finished behind two other Aprilia riders, limiting the gap he could pull out over the reigning champion.

Since then, Aprilia has faced questions about imposing team orders, with those only heightened after all riders and senior management from both of its teams were spotted attending a meeting on Thursday at Phillip Island.

Aprilia opens door to team orders in title chase

Aprilia team boss Paolo Bonora said the meeting was typical of the Italian brand on a race weekend.

He said no team orders were discussed, but the riders were urged to be cautious with each other, particularly after the clash between Marco Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez in the sprint at Mandalika.

“The clear thing is that we have to keep in mind that we are in a special part of the season, that we have to take care about each single session, each single movement on track,” Bonora said on the MotoGP world feed on Friday.

“We clearly said to our riders that there are no direct demands.

“The target is clear but we don’t want to say anything about rider orders.

“We didn’t say anything about rider orders because we want to have all of the Aprilia guys in front.

“We know, everybody, altogether, can do something very special. At the moment, we didn’t say anything in Indonesia.

“Yesterday, as usual, we had a meeting with all four riders saying clearly that the clear word is respect, only respect; don’t take a risk with the riders on the same bike.

“If you have to overtake somebody, take care that it’s in a safe space. But everyone has the potential.”

However, he then added: “At the moment, we haven’t defined anything regarding this.

“But it’s the first time we can achieve something very special and it will be not very smart if we have something clear, so one point, two points, five points difference, and there is the possibility, why not?

“But at the moment, no clear rider orders.”

“They can do what they want”

Marquez dismissed the idea of Ducati using team orders on Thursday, noting that “if you’re fast enough, you don’t need them”.

Ducati faces the issue of not having any of its riders being faster than Marquez right now to actually successfully deploy team orders.

When asked about Aprilia’s comments, Tardozzi said: “I would like to use what Marc said: if you are fast, you don’t need help.

“So, that’s it. They can do whatever they want. We are trying to focus only to be fast on track.

“We know our opponents are very strong, but in the end we are looking only at having the best results for Marc. And that’s it.”