MotoGP | Alex Marquez: “If anyone could have avoided the contact, it was Pecco!”

The Marquez brothers are the main protagonists of the Aragon Grand Prix, for better or for worse. While part of the Gresini garage exploded with joy for the first victory of the season with Marc Marquez, who returned to triumph after a fast of 1043 days, another part lowered the shutters with bitterness for having finished the Sunday race in the gravel with the Ducato #73. Alex Marquez ended up in the gravel a few laps from the end after a contact with Pecco Bagnaia.

The Gresini rider rode in third position for almost the entire race, but saw himself gaining tenths after tenths from Bagnaia, who started badly but made up a good comeback that was bringing him close to the podium. By now Pecco had that third position in sight, but at Turn 13 both saw the podium slip away because they came into contact in an overtaking attempt.

The episode, put under investigation by the Race Direction, ended in nothing because the stewards decided that it was a racing incident. However, Bagnaia does not think this way and, speaking to journalists, he lashed out at Alex Marquez, defining his way of riding as dangerous.

The Spaniard’s response was not long in coming, with his morale down for what happened but determined to defend himself from the accusations of the reigning champion: “He can get angry with me, I can get angry with him, but this will not change the result. But if there was anyone who could have avoided the contact, it was Pecco. He knew I was there, I didn’t know he was on the outside. If he had that much pace and was that much faster, he could have passed me at any other time. The only thing I said to Race Direction was that if he had left me a meter and not gone inside, it would have been enough. He knows that I am there and I go in or at least try to make the turn. He can have his opinion and I can have mine”.

“Everything was going well until there were a few laps to go, I was trying not to make any mistakes and follow the trajectory until the end,” explained Alex Marquez justifying his maneuver. “I went a little wide at Turn 12 because it was sliding a lot and we were all on the limit. When we got to Turn 13, the first thing I want to tell you is that I didn’t know who was behind me, because the team never tells me. When I was on the inside, my head was to the right, I had no vision and I felt the contact. The bike, with the wings and everything, goes straight and I couldn’t do anything. I tried to see where the wall was because we were going straight in that direction, it was a bit of a complicated moment.”

Bagnaia lashed out at Marquez not only for his conduct of the race, which he considered dangerous. The Ducati Lenovo rider had something to say about the fact that the Gresini rider did not speak to him after the accident, but Alex’s version is different: “I did not speak to Pecco, we went to Race Direction separately because the stewards wanted it that way. Then, when he was sitting outside there were a lot of cameras and I did not want to and did not want to speak. It is better to speak about these things in private and not while things are still hot. I have a good relationship with Pecco, we shared the garage for two or three years in the Spanish championship, we know each other well. I am sad for both of us, because the race ended there”.

“It was definitely one of the best Sundays, I was fighting for the podium at home, I would have given everything until the end. Pecco wanted to take advantage of the opportunity because he knew that today it was very difficult to overtake and today we had to take a lot of risks because the track was very dirty off the line. I understand him, he is playing for the World Championship and this was not his best weekend, he wanted to limit the damage in some way, but that’s how it went. We won’t change anything by talking,” concluded Marquez.