The incident between Pecco Bagnaia and Alex Marquez at MotorLand Aragón continues to be a topic of discussion. The reigning world champion and the Gresini Racing rider ended up on the ground after the Spaniard ran wide at Turn 12 and the Italian tried to take advantage of the situation to pass him on the outside at Turn 13. The resulting crossing of lines created a potentially very dangerous pile-up, from which fortunately both riders got up without serious consequences.
Both riders blamed each other, with Bagnaia claiming that the Spaniard didn’t stop accelerating until he crashed, and Marquez claiming that the Piedmontese was the only one who could have avoided the accident. In the end, however, there was also a clarification: both discussed the accident in the Ducati truck privately after a chat with Gigi Dall’Igna, and Race Direction decided not to penalize anyone, believing that the track conditions played a fundamental role in what happened.
The premier class riders have expressed their opinion on what happened after the Aragon GP. Some have sided with Bagnaia, like one of Valentino Rossi’s protégés, Marco Bezzecchi, who claimed that the younger Marquez “is blind or did not want to see” the official Ducati rider. And others are more on the side of the rider from Cervera.
This is the case of Johann Zarco. The French rider explained to the media after the race that the 2022 and 2023 MotoGP champion “doesn’t take the other riders into account enough”, and that he believes that the others “will slow down to let him pass”. He considers him guilty of what happened at least for having taken the risk of overtaking at that point after the Spaniard’s mistake.
“Pecco doesn’t take the others into account enough. He already did it in Le Mans with Maverick Vinales (in the long race of the 2023 French GP). I don’t know if there have been other races”, began Zarco who partly recalled what happened in Portimao between Bagnaia himself and Marc Marquez.
Analysing the Aragon incident, he explained: “Bagnaia feels he is in his lane and, in fact, yes, he is on a better trajectory than Alex, but Marquez is already well ahead. So it also makes sense for Alex to maintain his position. Sometimes it seems that Pecco comes in to overtake thinking that, of course, we will brake to let him pass. This is what creates accidents.”
The rider from Nice also thinks that Marquez could have braked, but he blames Pecco more for what happened: “In the same way, Alex could have braked, but he is doing his race and when he enters the corner, if you look at the positions, he is still almost in front. Then Pecco is on a trajectory where he is sure he is stronger, but I will always go in a direction where I am sure. Something can happen and Pecco doesn’t care”.
The other French rider on the grid, Fabio Quartararo, also commented on the incident. The Yamaha rider did not want to get too involved, but for his part he put the blame mostly on the Gresini rider: “It’s difficult to say. When do you go out like that at Turn 12? It was dirty outside the ideal track, so you can’t get back on the line very quickly. Pecco stayed on the track, but I think Alex is a little bit responsible. It was very dirty and he went very, very long,” he explained.
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