Raging Franco Morbidelli lambasts Aleix Espargaro’s slap at Qatar MotoGP: “We all think he has a problem”
Espargaro reached out with his left hand and slapped Morbidelli’s helmet after a skirmish in Saturday practice for the Qatar MotoGP.
The Ap💯rilia rider was hit with a 10,000 fine and a six-place penalty for the grand 🍎prix but that didn’t satisfy Morbidelli.
The Yamaha rider told about Espargaro: “We all think he has a problem🌃.
♛“You’ve seen him overreacting many, ma💟ny times in his career.
“Hꦐe has many more ep💎isodes to be ashamed of, than to be proud of.
“I have nothingꦯ to say to him. He usually has disproportionate, exaggerated and violent reactions.
“They are bad to hold to people who work with you,🎶 and race against you.
“They are ugly because the whole world sees them.
“I🔯 remain proud of my integrity and being able t💟o look everyone in the face.
Franky Morbidelli via his Instagram story
— Crash MotoGP (@crash_motogp)
“I haven’t had anything to say ⛄to him before and I won’t have anything to say to him in the future.
“What if he apologised? No. I think he also has nothing to say to me, other than excuses of very little value. Not👍 aimed at me, but rather aimed at justifying himself for an inexplicable gesture.
“It’s a huge disrespect action to me.
“We should compete with each other ജrespecting the rul🧸es.
“We should h🅰ave a healthy sporting hatred towards rivals, certainly not to these levels✱.
“What kind of ﷽reaction is throwing a [slap] to someone slowing down for yellow flags? I don’t know…”
Espargaro’s punishment from the FIM Stewards includes bumping back his 10th-place start in the Qatar MotoGP to 16th - meaning he’s on the same row as Morbidelli, if he’s passed fit to race after fracturing his fibula in a separate clash with♔ Miguel Oliveira.
“I feel the stewaꩵrds’ decision is joking with me,” Morbidelli compla📖ined.
“Because tomorrow he is right beside me.
“That’s playing with us, and we are not 🍌playing, clearly. That’s really not wise to do.”
Morbidelli detailed the slap incident: “We were facing the lap, Marquez crashed in Turn 2 so the👍y gave yellow flags. Martin, in front of me, slowed down so I s𝔉lowed down, as well.
“By the time we r♒eached Turn 4, Aleix overtook me. I wanted to get back my position so I overtook him at Turn 5.
“At Turn 6 he bombed on 🔯me, almost making me and him crash.
“After his fault on me, his reaction was silly.
“As I was telling him to chill out, he had 🐠another big reaction.
“It’s something🐓 not good to see, not good to take. “But I take it, and I move forward.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Spor♛ts f💮or a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
