VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio believes MotoGP riders need to have “fear of huge penalties” to avoid a repeat of his clash with Alex Marquez during the Thai MotoGP sprint.

The satellite Ducati duo were battling for the fourth position at the start of Saturday’s 13-lap Buriram sprint when they made contact at Turn 3.

Gresini’s Alex Marquez tried to outbrake Fabio Di Giannantonio on the inside of the corner, but had to avoid the Trackhouse Aprilia of Raul Fernandez and forced both Ducati riders out wide.

Di Giannantonio was livid with Marquez, with the pair eighth and 11th at the chequered flag.

Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez split on lap one clash

The FIM stewards took no action, with it deemed a racing incident typical of a bunched pack at the start of a race.

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But Di Giannantonio feels riders must have a “fear” of harsh punishment to avoid similar situations happening in the future.

“I was fourth, and I did my braking,” he told the official MotoGP website.

“I was trying to go in on my line. But I heard a high noise, and I saw Alex coming quite hot.

“So, to avoid a huge crash between me, Raul and him, I had to pick up the bike and wait for his line. Both lines were quite outside of the track.

“So, what’s my position? I’m just really confident the race direction [stewards] can avoid these kinds of situations because I think the first strong corner that you have after a start where you all arrive together is the most dangerous moment of the race, of the weekend.

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“We experienced quite a lot of huge crashes, where a lot of bones went here and there.

“So, to avoid this type of bad show, we need to have big respect for the other riders but a sort of fear of huge penalties that can come if you do a disaster.

“It has to be the same for me [as others], for sure. So, now I’m really confident we can work on this with the race direction because it’s poor also for the show to have these situations.”

Marquez felt he had no choice but to release the brakes at Turn 3, as he felt Di Giannantonio was closing the racing line on his outside.

“It was a shame. I did a really good start and we were side by side on that braking point with DiGia,” he explained.

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“He decided to defend that position from the outside, and he was closing the line on me.

“Raul was inside, so I was not able to do anything.

“So, at one point I said, ‘Ok, I will release the brakes, because if not I will create an even worse situation’. Nothing more to say.”

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