Franco Morbidelli hit with double long lap penalty; “Unlucky, not irresponsible”
“It was not irresponsible, let’s🗹 put it this way. It was unlucky."
Franco Morbidelli must ser༺ve a double long lap penalty in Sunday’s Briﷺtish MotoGP.
He was punished by FIM stewards 🅺for an incident at Turn 1 of Saturday’s sprint, when he clattered into Marco Bezzecchi, wipi🤡ng them both out of the race.
Alt🔥hough Pramac’s Morbidelli acce♔pts the stewards’ verdict, he insists it should have been ruled a racing incident.
Thജis incidenꦰt at the start between and Bezzecchi is under investigation ⚠️ 🇬🇧
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP)
Morbidelli and Bezzecchi were confirmedꦛ as fit after a visit t🍎o the medical centre.
Morbidelli explained to media including mahbx.com at Silverstone: “Somethinﷺg happened with Maverick [Vinales].
“He had a bad start. Hꦬe lost many positions, he went to brake, he stopped. I went t🎃o brake in a normal spot but couldn’t avoid the crash, couldn’t avoid the impact.
“I crashed into Marc🅘o unfortunately. It was an unfortunate episode.
“It was not irresponsible, let’s put it this way. It was unluᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚcky.
“I didn’t want to overtake anybody. I 👍wanted to brake in a normal spot. If you see the images I braked earlier than Miguel Oliveira, 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 incid🌞ent did not warrant𝔍 a punishment.
Morbidelli reacted: “T꧅he problem is that this is racing. We are going at 200km/h and there are 20 bikesℱ.
“Things like this can happen.
“🎃It was an unfortunate racing incident. It was not an irresponsible riding epis𒉰ode, at all.
“But the stewards have 💛a different opinion and I accept this.”
Morbidelli was asked if the aero of modern MotoGP bikes contributes tꦜo clashes like his with Bezzecchi.
“Sure,” he said. “We reac♌h the first corner at a very high speed.
“The air suction makes a lot of difference.
“Luckily, I’m OK and Maꦓrco is OK. We are banged but OK.”
Morbidelli lost the opportunity to gather different♛ data for his GP24.
“We had 🥃a different set-♑up for this sprint race to increase our performance. We’ll give it a go tomorrow morning,” he said.
But, Morbidelli’s grand prix at Si🥀lverstone on Sunday will now be blighted by a double long lap penalty🧜.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade 🏅covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
