After his crash in Barcelona, Franco Morbidelli receives a penalty for Misano – He defends himself against accusations of misconduct towards the marshals
Franco Morbidelli has taken a penalty from Barcelona to Misano. The VR46 Ducati rider must sit out the first ten minutes of Friday morning’s first practice session and may only leave the pit lane afterwards. He also received a fine of €2,000.
Morbidelli ended the Grand Prix in Barcelona with a crash. Away from the TV cameras, a situation then arose with the marshals. The race stewards concluded that the Italian had not followed the marshals’ instructions. This led to a “potential danger” for “himself and others” and is classified as “irresponsible behavior,” according to the race stewards’ statement. They therefore imposed the above penalties.
“It’s not clear to me,” Morbidelli replied four days later ahead of the race weekend in Misano. “Well, it looked on the video as if the marshals had told me not to restart. But in fact, they didn’t tell me not to continue.”
“They told me to take a different route back to the pit lane. So I think the problem was where I rejoined the race. That wasn’t ideal from race director Mike Webb’s point of view. And that’s why I got the penalty.”
“What I want to make clear,” Morbidelli emphasizes, “is that I didn’t have an argument with the marshals. On the contrary, they helped me restart, and I’m still grateful to them. I thanked them immediately after they helped me restart the bike.”
“It was a huge job to bring the bike back from the crash site outside turn 10. I want to make it clear that I wasn’t rude to them. I just got back on the track at a point where I probably shouldn’t have.”
The Italian also revealed that there was no conversation with Webb. The race commissioners around Simon Crafar had explained to him the reasons that led to the penalty. “I have no problem with that,” Morbidelli clarifies.
“The most important thing for me is to make it clear that I was not rude to the marshals. They are people who work with us, and they take a big risk when they go out on the track and try to recover the motorcycle.“
”Besides, my motorcycle started to burn, so one of them went back to the accident site and got the fire extinguisher, and we put out the fire. So I have no problems with the marshals.”
Morbidelli admits: “Penalties are piling up”
In Barcelona, Morbidelli had to appear before the race commissioners twice. In the sprint, he also took Jorge Martin (Aprilia) off his bike in a failed overtaking maneuver in turn 10. Both crashed. Morbidelli received a long-lap penalty.
“It’s a tricky phase for me right now,” admits the 2020 MotoGP runner-up. “I’ve had a lot of meetings with the race stewards. We’ve talked a lot, and they’ve tried to explain to me how they see and judge things.”
“And it seems that we’ve had difficulties recently. I mean, I’m having trouble implementing exactly what they’re asking of me. Because of my riding style, because of the way I am and the way I’ve always been.”
“But it’s not the first time something like this has happened to a rider. That a rider has a difficult phase with the people who protect him. As I’ve always said, I’m always open to talking to the race stewards.“
”I always respect their decisions and always try to do what they ask of me. It’s probably a process, and I’m still trying to complete that process. I hope I’ll succeed soon, because the penalties are definitely piling up.”