MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez has reported two Italian journalists to Spanish police after an alleged scuffle at the rider’s home in the Catalan town of Cervera on Friday.
The reporters from the “Le Iene” (The Hyenas) programme targeted Marquez in the aftermath of his high-profile crash with nine-time Italian world champion Valentino Rossi.
Marquez was kicked off his bike by Rossi in a tense Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend.
“Yesterday a series of unfortunate incidents took place in Cervera,” Marquez’s representatives said in a statement on Saturday.
“A group of people appeared at the rider’s home and shouted a series of insults, acted in a ridiculous and humiliating way towards the rider himself and even pushed and assaulted his closest relatives.
“Given the seriousness of these actions, such acts have been reported and the normal course of criminal proceedings will be followed against such persons.”
However, journalists Stefano Corti and Alessandro Onnis claimed they were the ones that had been injured and had their cameras broken.
“We arrived in the vicinity of the dwelling of the parents of the pilot where we met Marc Marquez, his father, his brother and a friend,” they posted on the Le Iene official Facebook page alongside a picture of the broken cameras.
“We were attacked and in the struggle they broke the camera and took the video card.”
The journalists’ TV station said a legal case would be pursued against Marquez, claiming the Spaniard’s account of the drama was not true.
“The rider was neither humiliated nor insulted and no family member was pushed or shoved,” said a statement.
Their two reporters would “pursue Marquez and family for assault, slander and theft”.
Rossi leads the championship standings by seven points from Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, but was sanctioned for the season’s final Grand Prix in Valencia next weekend in which he will start from the back of the grid as punishment for kicking out at Marquez.
However, that penalty has been suspended pending Rossi’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport with a final decision not expected until 48 hours before the race on Friday.
The spat between Rossi and Marquez began when the former claimed the Spaniard was conspiring against him to help compatriot Lorenzo land the title.