Marc Marquez has called for more "respect" for his brother Alex in the aftermath of a Dutch TT weekend in which the way they race each other was in the spotlight.
Alex had looked quicker than Marc, not just his brother and Ducati stablemate but a genuine title rival this year, in the Saturday sprint, but never really found a way past or looked close to doing so.
It prompted "curiosity" from at least one rival (Joan Mir, spectating after his early crash and convinced Alex could’ve made a pass stick "without any problem") and meant a re-litigation of the topic of whether Alex has been aggressive enough in racing his brother this season - which The Race has also previously discussed.
But Alex had insisted on Saturday that he was simply not fast enough in the right parts of the track to attack Marc in either of the realistic overtaking spots - which he saw as being the Geert Timmer chicane and the first corner.
And on Sunday, while Alex exited the race in a crash that left him with a fractured hand, Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi found himself in a very similar situation after shadowing Marc all race.
"Yesterday the people were pushing Alex. 'No, he didn't try, because he's the brother of.' So, today Marco didn't try?" the elder Marquez asked during MotoGP.com's post-race show.
He repeatedly told TNT Sports that criticism of Alex had made him "angry" then hit the topic again in the press conference, more or less unprompted: "I want to say to the people that they need to respect all the riders.
"Yesterday, in the media scrum, started to think that 'ah, your brother didn't attack you as other riders', and even some mechanics told me that on social media people started to talk about things.
"And today Marco, why didn't he attack me? At the end, if the front rider is in a very equal level, in this racetrack that is super narrow, you cannot attack the front rider.
"So yesterday I defended in the best way possible [from] Alex, and today I defended in the best way possible [from] Marco. And I knew they were faster in that [right-hander sequence] Turn 11-12, that is the fastest area, very narrow corners. And there, if you are on the good line, they cannot attack you.
"And I was just strong on the brake points so I defended in a really good way, and that way I took the 37 points.
"One more time: respect the MotoGP riders because all of them defend their colours, defend their teams. All of the grid want to win, the problem is only one is able to win."
Bezzecchi, for his part, already on Saturday said he believed Alex made a full effort to overtake Marc in the sprint.
And he corroborated Marc's words, describing an overtake as "almost impossible to even try".
"The only place where I was strong to attack some riders was the braking of the last chicane. I passed Alex, I passed Pecco [Bagnaia] there, but Marc was a bit stronger in Turn 15, and as he said, I always caught him in the wrong place.
"I was faster in sector three, then I was too close in the slipstream in the change of direction before Turn 15. And in that area of the track it's really difficult to stay close with the slipstream. So I had always to step back a bit, and then I wasn't close enough for the braking in the last chicane.
"I think he was a bit stronger than me. I was a bit on the limit all the race, this is why I never had the chance to try."
