Franco Morbidelli hit with double long lap penalty; “Unlucky, not irresponsible”
“It was not ir🐻responsiꦐble, let’s put it this way. It was unlucky."
Franco Morbidelli must serve a �ཧ�double long lap penalty in Sunday’s British MotoGP.
He was punished by ✨FIM steward෴s for an incident at Turn 1 of Saturday’s sprint, when he clattered into Marco Bezzecchi, wiping them both out of the race.
Although Pramaꦏc’s Morbidelli accepts the stewards’ 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 confi✱rmed as fit𒀰 after a visit to the medical centre.
Morbidelli explained to media including wuqian0821.com at Silverstone: “𒀰Something happened with Maveri🌄ck [Vinales].
“He had a bad start. He lost many positions, h🔜e went to brake, he stopped. I went to brake in a normal spot but couldn’t avoid the crash, couldn’t avoid the impact.
“I𓂃 crashed 𒆙into Marco unfortunately. It was an unfortunate episode.
“It ꦑwas not irresponsible, let’s put it this way. It was unlucཧky.
“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 i🔴nsist 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 unfo෴rtunate racing incident. It was not an irrespon﷽sible riding episode, at all.
“But the stewards have a different opinionꩲ an꧟d I accept this.”
Morbidelli was asked if the aero of modern MotoGP bikes contributesꦇ to clashes like his with Bezzecchi.
“Sure,” he said. “We reach the first﷽ corner at a very high speed.
“The air suction makes a lot of difference.
“Luckily, I’m OK and Marco is OK. We ar♚e banged but OK.”
Morbidelli lost the oppo▨rtunity 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 prꦜix at Silverstone 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.
