Marquez received the penalty for slamming ꦅinto the side of home hero Oliveira after losing control under braking in the Portimao season-opener.

The eight-time world champion apo🎀logised to Oliveira and accepted the double long lap sanction from the FIM Stewards.

However, when it became clear that Marquez (like Oliveira) woulཧd miss round two in Argentina due to his injuries, the Stewards tried to change the application of the penalty from Argentina to Marquez’s ‘next race’.

Repsꦏol Honda filed a protest against the 'modification' and the penalty has no♌w been suspended until the MotoGP Court of Appeal reaches its final verdict.

Although Marquez is to miss a second event due to his fractured thumb, Olivꦓeira is making his return at COTA this wꦅeekend.

“Marc and I cleared everything on the Sunday,” Oliveira said. “He came to check on me in the medical centre. He explained what happened, and he ꦯapologised.

“That is case closed, for😼 me. Since then, I haven’t paid attention [to the appeals]. I hope🌊 he comes back soon to race in Jerez and recovers fully.”

Oliveira, who had been holding second at the time of the accident, explai🍌ned:

“The injury was ൩[to] a couple of tendons in the hip. I couldn’t open my leg over the bike without big pain… so I made a pretty tough decision to take a rest [and miss Argentina].

“It’s a shame the races were ba𝔉ck-to-back otherwise I could have raced. But after wha𒆙t happened on the Sunday, I am grateful not to have any major injuries.”

Looking ahead to his COTA debut with RNF Apr💫ilia, the five-time MotoGP race winner conceded he will need to improve on straight-line braking but sees no reason why the RS-GP can’t be competitive.

“Portimao was a track that suited my style, and not the areas whe🐟re I struggled with the Aprilia, which was straight braking. Here in Texas I think I will struggle a bit more to adapt to these areas where I am not really comfortable yet,” he said.

“But we have the opportunity from tomorrow to start working on this and get more comfortable with the bike. It’s a long season. I just want to restart here and hopef💙ully score points in both rac✤es. That’ll be important.

“I need to discover the track with this bike, I don’t see any specific reason why t🍬he Aprilias cannot be com🌃petitive here.”