Aleix Espargaro questions penalties after feisty exchange with Franco Morbidelli
Aleix Espargaro was on the receiving end of som๊e close moves in Sunday’s French MotoGP ra🍷ce.
An eventful pair of races at Le Mans saw 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Aleix Espargaro🔥 serve a double long lap penalty for jumping the start in the Sprint, salvaging fifth, before a pair of incidents cost him dearly i♏n the grand prix.
The first was a close pass by Enea Bastianini, which forced Espargaro to straight-line the Turn 9 chicane and also allowed⭕ Fabio Quartararo to overtake, leaving him in 🍎eighth.
But Bastianini had cut the corner and was gi🤡ven a Long Lap penalty for failing to back off by at least one second (but not for the actual pass on Espargaro).
Bastianini's penalty put Espargaro into seventh, where he remained after Quartararo fell and Bastianin꧙i re-passed. However, he lost two more places on the final lap during a pass by Morbidelli, leaving him ninth.
“It was 🗹a pity about Aleix because he started strong but then found himself in a few battles that caused him to lose rhythm,” said Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola.
“🐈First an aggressive move by Bastianini and then, at the end of the race, Morbidelli also 🐓cost him two positions.
"Itဣ’s ဣdifficult to find your pace when these types of episodes occur.”
| — MotoGP on TNT Sports (@motogpontnt)Afterwards, Espargaro🐓 questioned why penalties don’t seem to be applied if a rider is forced to take evasive action💯 to avoid an accident.
“With Enea, I had to pick up the bike, it was very quick. But Franco also, if I didn’t pick up the bike, I would crash,” Espargaro𝓀 said.
“So the feeling is that they just put a p🃏enalty if you crash.
“But what you have to judge an✨d penalise is the action, not the outcome. If I held the line, we both woul🐓d have had a big [accident].
“So I didn’t really understand, but it’s OK.”
The lap times suggest Espargaro, who was holding third p𒊎lace in the early stages, lost a⛦round 3 seconds during the incidents.
If that is subtracted from his +11.3s finishing time, he would have been around sixth place, d🍰irectly behind team-mate Maverick Vinaleꦕs.
“I expected to be faster,🥃 sincerely, but🐼 I didn’t have grip really,” he said. “I expected with this low temperature to have better traction, but [on Saturday] I felt a lot stronger.”
Peter has been in t🀅he paddock for 20 years and has🧸 seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
