Until the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Until the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
The last time MotoGP rivals Aleix Espargaro and Franco Morbidelli had a confrontation on the track, it ended with one of them slapping the other on the neck, followed by a verbal attack about respect. This dispute was resolved and there have been no recurrences of these incidents since the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix in France last weekend. However, their invisible clash on the last lap generated different reactions and opinions, as well as another complaint directed at the constantly scrutinized stewards.
Espargaro had already taken evasive action by going off track to avoid Enea Bastianini at Chemin aux Boeufs Esses, towards the end of some challenging laps where he dropped from third place in the early stages of the French GP. Although not shown on TV broadcast, Morbidelli essentially repeated this maneuver on the last lap, which, in Espargaro’s view, forced him to obey or crash, similar to what he believed had happened in the incident with Bastianini. As a result, Espargaro dropped to ninth place behind Morbidelli and Brad Binder.
While confronting Morbidelli in the press center after the race, Espargaro seemed calm about the incident when speaking to the media. Instead, his main concern was the lack of action taken by the stewards. Although there was no physical contact in any of the incidents, Espargaro emphasized that he believed this was irrelevant and that the actions, not just their consequences, needed to be taken into consideration.
Espargaro stated: “If I had kept the line [against Bastianini], we would have had a big crash; we were very fast and I saw the replay, he was far away when he attacked me. So I really didn’t understand why there was no penalty, but it’s okay.”
This incident comes just a few weeks after Espargaro’s previous encounter with the panel of commissioners led by Freddie Spencer in Jerez. On that occasion, Espargaro was the target of scrutiny after contact with Johann Zarco resulted in both ending up in the gravel trap. Zarco was the one who expressed frustration towards the commissioners, believing they sought his guidance instead of making a decision on the appropriate punishment for Espargaro.
Bastianini received a penalty, but it was for cutting the second part of the Esses and gaining an unfair advantage, not for forcing Espargaro off the track. Morbidelli, who did not receive any penalty and finished in seventh place, was even less remorseful than Bastianini when questioned about the incident immediately after his heated conversation with Espargaro.
“I just tried an overtaking maneuver in the last corner. He didn’t seem too happy about it, but I’m used to his behavior now,” said Morbidelli. “We didn’t even touch.”
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