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 Aprilia rider was hit wit❀h a 10,000 fine and a six-place ♕penalty for the grand prix but that didn’t satisfy Morbidelli.
The Yamaha rider told about E♈spargaro: “We💫 all think he has a problem.
ꦏ“You’ve seen him overr🍸eacting many, many times in his career.
“He has many more epi🦄sodes to be ashamed of, than to be proud of.
“I have nothing to say to him. He usually has disproportionat🎉e, exaggerated and violent reactions.
“They are bad to hold t༒o people who wor෴k with you, and race against you.
“They are ugly because the whole world sees them.
“I remain proud of my integrity and being able to look everyone in the fa🔯ce.
Franky Morbidelli via his Instagram story
— Crash MotoGP (@crash_motogp)
“I haven’t had anything to say to him before an♌d I won’t have anything to say to him in the fu🐷ture.
“What if he apologised? No. I think he also has nothing to say to me, other than excuses of very little value. Not aimeℱd at me, but rather aimed at justifying himself for an inexplicable gesture.
“It’s a huge disrespect action to me.
“W♛e should compete with each other respecting the rules.
“We should have a healthy sporting hatred towards rivals, certainly not to tౠhese levels.
“What kind of💮 reaction is throwing a [sla💟p] to someone slowing down for yellow flags? I don’t know…”
Espargaro’s punishment from the FIM Stewards includes bumping back his 10th-pla𝓡ce 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 stewards’ decision is joking with meℱ,” Morbidelli complained.
“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 they gave yellow flags. Martin, in front of me, slowed down so I slowed down, as wellꦏ.
“By the tim𒆙e we reached Turn 4, Aleix overtook me. I wanted to get back my position so I overtookꦍ him at Turn 5.
“At Turn 6 he bombed on me, almost maki🍨ng me and him crash.
“After his fault on me, his reaction was silly.
“As I wa💃s telling him to chill out, he had another ꦍbig reaction.
“It’🍨s something not good to see, not good to take. “But I take it, and I move forwꩵard.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports💞 for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
