MotoGP | Morbidelli penalized for crash at start, but defends himself

The Silverstone sprint race immediately opened with an episode that inevitably ended up under the magnifying glass of the stewards, namely the accident involving Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli and team VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi.

A contact that arose when Morbidelli lost control of his bike at the first braking point, ending up hitting the innocent Bezzecchi, who despite himself flew into the air before falling back down on the asphalt. The Italian from VR46 had started from the twelfth spot and had managed to gain a position before being hit by his compatriot.

Given the speed with which he arrived at the braking point on the innermost part of turn one, also due to the suction effect caused by the aerodynamics, it was virtually impossible for Morbidelli to recover the bike, ending up hitting Bezzecchi, while Raul Fernandez was forced to move wide to avoid the two who ended up on the asphalt after the crash.

For this episode, the stewards decided to sanction Morbidelli a double long lap penalty to be served in tomorrow’s race, given that there should be no particular consequences for the Pramac rider from a physical point of view. The Italian, who was sanctioned for having driven irresponsibly according to the MotoGP regulations causing danger to his colleagues, will therefore have to pass twice through the lane created to slow down the riders.

Speaking about the episode, however, while accepting the penalty imposed by the stewards, Morbidelli did not completely agree with what the stewards said, maintaining that it was not an episode of dangerous driving, but rather an unfortunate contact during the race.

“It’s a racing contact. The problem is that it’s part of racing, we get to over 200 km/h at that point, with over 20 bikes and things like that can happen. From my point of view, the episode is just a racing incident, an unfortunate episode. It’s definitely not an episode where I was the author of irresponsible riding, but the stewards had a different opinion and I accept that.”

“We arrive at the corners at very high speed and the suction effect of the air due to the aerodynamics makes a big difference. But fortunately, both Marco and I are okay.”

“I braked in the right place, but I couldn’t avoid the contact with Marco unfortunately. It was an unfortunate episode”

Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“It’s not irresponsible riding, it was just an unlucky episode, because I didn’t want to overtake anyone. I braked in the right place, if you see the images I braked before Olivera, who was the rider on my left, but then I was sucked into Vinales’ slipstream. It was an unlucky episode,” added the Pramac team rider.

In the meantime, Bezzecchi was taken to the medical centre for further tests, which ruled out injuries to his right foot, although a bruise remains due to the heavy fall: the VR46 rider will undergo physiotherapy in preparation for tomorrow’s race.

“It was a much shorter race than expected: I didn’t have a bad start, I tried to stay on the inside at the first corner, but I just felt a big hit and found myself in the air,” Bezzecchi said, explaining the dynamics of the accident from his point of view, as well as his physical condition after the checks at the track’s medical center.

“The impact with the asphalt was hard, I immediately felt pain in my foot, but after the x-ray at the medical center we ruled out injuries. The bruise is painful, we’re trying to use these hours to recover with physiotherapy and understand in what conditions we can return to the track tomorrow.”