Fear on the way
The race Sprint of the Spanish Grand Prix it started immediately with a scare already during the first lap, with as many as four riders involved in an accident which, fortunately, did not have any physical repercussions for any of the protagonists. It all started with a bad maneuver by Franco Morbidelliwho attempted to overtake within curve 2 on Alex Marquez, but moving too far inwards and losing control of his Yamaha.
Nakagami’s ‘miracle’
Slipped dangerously in the middle of the track, the Italian rider’s bike hit the Ducati in full Marco Bezzecchi, then crashed into the gravel on the outside of the bend. The outcome of the accident, however, would have been much more serious if not for the excellent reflexes of Takaaki Nakagami, who arrived right behind Morbidelli. The Japanese from Honda, in fact, managed to dodge by a hair’s breadth the Roman rider, bumping his bike only slightly and continuing his race regularly, then interrupted shortly after with the exposure of the Red flag.
A maneuver to the limit
Despite the incident, Morbidelli and Bezzecchi then managed to get back on the spare bike to take part in the last 11 laps of the race, but Nakagami’s maneuver did not go unnoticed by the 28-year-old from Yamaha, who wanted to express all her gratitude against the Japanese centaur for what he managed to do in that circumstance, avoiding the concrete risk of hitting his opponent with his bike, who was left on the ground right in the middle of the track at that moment.
A gift for Takaaki
In fact, after the race, Morbidelli wanted to openly thank Nakagami: “It was a very difficult sprint for us – has explained – I had a crash at the start of the Sprint, and we were involved in a crash at turn 2. I’m very happy that nothing serious happened because I was in the middle of the track. I especially want to thank Takaaki for his quick reflexes in avoiding me. I’ll make him a nice present. He did his best to avoid me. She only slightly affected me, but it could have been a lot worse. Then we resumed the Sprint and did it with the rear tire that we would have used for tomorrow’s race and with the soft front tire that we still had. It certainly wasn’t suitable for these conditions, but we gathered data for Sunday’s race.”
The DRace direction finally analyzed the accident on the first lap and decided to penalize Franco Morbidelli, found guilty of the incident, with a Long Lap Penalty for “the next race”. Yamaha appealed the fine, but the appeal was rejected by the Stewards.
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