Sepang, Marquez-Morbidelli sparks in the wake
Next year they will be brand mates at Ducati. However, 2024 still has three weekends left, and therefore, if they have to say something to each other, Franco Morbidelli and Marc Marquez they do it directly on the track. This morning the two became the protagonists of a curious episode: to try to get through to Q2 of the Sepang qualifying, Marquez attached himself (as he often does) to the Italian-Brazilian’s M1, thus trying to exploit its slipstream and overcome the power deficit that Honda has compared to Ducati.
However, the Spaniard’s attempt was unsuccessful, not only because two Ducatis qualified for the next stage, but because Morbidelli slowed down on purpose, making it clear with clear gestures that he did not want to help him. The eight-time world champion fell behind the M1, and certainly lost precious time. He lost it though too Frankiewho in the Ps came close to Q2 and in the Sprint climbed from 15th to 11th position, thus demonstrating that he has the potential to close the race in the points.
Video
This is the “curtain” between Morbidelli and Marquez, taken from the MotoGP social accounts.
Morbidelli’s words
Speaking to journalists, the 2017 Moto2 world champion didn’t go easy on the Spaniard: “Once upon a time, when you made the other guy understand that you didn’t want to shoot, it ended there. Today this is no longer the case. If once moments of disrespect between drivers were limited to the last five laps of the race, now they start from the first lap on Friday. It’s not up to us to moderate this kind of thing (Furthermore, there is no rule against taking the trail, editor’s note). Marc wanted to attack because he thought it was right to stay behind me and I thought it was right not to give him the slipstream, because he often throws himself in and it didn’t seem wise to let myself be cheated out of another position in qualifying. He definitely didn’t help me get 100% in qualifying. Maybe I would have passed or maybe not, but I would have only thought about making time“.
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