The Malaysian Grand Prix was undoubtedly the best weekend of the season in terms of speed for Franco Morbidelli, who since last summer’s knee operation, resulting in recovery and promotion to the Yamaha factory team, has never been the same as he was. we have seen fighting for the title in 2020.
As the season ends and, like this, the options to do something good, the Roman rider has become more and more nervous and on some occasions he has lost his mind. In fact, on Friday, in FP3 he proceeded slowly on the trajectory while Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez arrived behind him who were completing their fastest lap. The Race Direction punished this maneuver with a double Long Lap Penalty.
At the start of the Sepang race, Morbidelli was very fast, covering his back to team-mate Fabio Quartararo in the first three laps, before having to do the two Long Laps in which he lost three positions each and went from 6th to 15th place 12 laps from the end.
From that moment on he recovered, gaining pace, up to two laps from the checkered flag in 11th position, just behind Aleix Espargaro. On the last lap, the Italian tried at turn 14, the penultimate, throwing himself inside the Aprilia rider to overtake, but he leaned on the Spaniard’s bike, hitting him and almost making him lose his balance. In the end Morbidelli crossed the line in tenth position.
However, after a series of complaints for which the commissioners studied the images, it was decided to sanction Franco with three seconds, making him fall back to 11th position, behind Aleix. “They penalized me once again for a normal overtaking at the penultimate corner,” Morbidelli complained. “I hope this action will have a great impact on social networks and on television, because it serves as an example of how the Race Direction is wrong and how it made mistakes once again”.
Visibly disappointed, the Yamaha rider continued: “They are human and humans can make mistakes, but it is important to be able to discuss how these maneuvers are judged. Something is wrong, because these things happen too often now. It’s time to sit down with the Race Direction and talk about what’s going on. There is no dialogue between the commissioners and the protagonists of this championship. I think they are under great pressure and this pressure overwhelms them. Too many comments on social media, everywhere. I think there is no balance between safety and spectacle ”.
For Franco, overtaking was normal: “If I can overtake at the penultimate corner, on a bike that can’t overtake on the straight, it means they’re not defending me. Plus, she never backed down on any of his decisions. Never. In football, and in most sports, decisions are reversed ”.
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