Franco Morbidelli hit with double long lap penalty; “Unlucky, not irresponsible”
“It 💞was not irresponsible, let’s put it this way. It was unlucky."
F🤡ranco Morbidelli𝓡 must serve a double long lap penalty in Sunday’s British MotoGP.
He was punished by FIM stewards for an i♌ncident at Turn 1 of Saturday’s sprint, when he clattered into Marco Bezzecchi, wiping them bo💃th out of the race.
Although Pramac’s Morbidelli accepts the 𝓰stewards’ verdict, he insists it should have been ruled a racing incident.
This incident at the start between and Bezzecchi is under investigation ⚠️ �🃏�🇧
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP)
Morbidelli and Bezzecchi ♔were confirmed as fit after a visit to the medical centre.
Morbidelli explained to media including ltxcn.top at Silverstone: “Something h﷽appened with Maverick [Vinales].
“He had a bad start. He lost many positions, he went to brake, he stopped. I went to brake in a normal spot but couldn’t avoid the crash, couldn’t avoid the im💫pact.
“I crashed into Marco unfortunately. 🌠It 🌱was an unfortunate episode.
“It was no🐼t irresponsible, let’s put it this way. It was unluc🃏ky.
“I didn’t want to overtake anybody. I wanted to bra🃏ke in a normal spot. If you see the images I braked earlier than Miguel Oꦡliveira, but then I got sucked in by Maverick who was at a different speed than everybody.
“I accept what the stewards say.”
Marc Marquez was among💖 the riders to stick up for Morbidelli and insist the incident did not warrant a punishment.
Morbidelli reacted: “The problem is that this is racing.💃 We are going at 200km/h and there are 20 bikes.
“Things like this can happen.
“It was an unfortunate raci💯ng incident. It was not an irrespon💞sible riding episode, at all.
“But the stewards have a different opinion and I acওcept this.”
Morbidelli was asked if the aero of modern MotoGP bikes contribute🦂s to clashes like his with Bezzecchi.
“Sure,” he said. “We reach t🏅he first corner at a very high speed.
“The air suction makes a lot of difference.
“ღLuckily, I’m OK and Marco is OK. We are banged but OK.”
Morbidelli lost the opp🔥ortunity to gathe♏r different data for his GP24.
“We had a different set-up for this sprint rac🗹e to increase our performance. We’ll give it a go tomorrow morning,” he said.
But, Morbidelli’s grand prix at Silverstone on Sunday will now 😼be blighted by a double long lap penalty.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a dec⛎ade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
