Franco Morbidelli warned he “has to be more careful” after Valencia MotoGP incident

A start line collision between Franco Morbidelli and Aleix Espargaro did not inspire any outstanding anger from the HRC test rider, but the Spaniard warned that Morbidelli “has to be more careful”.

Morbidelli and Espargaro were rolling up to the grid before the start of the Valencia MotoGP – the last race of the season where Espargaro was wildcarding for Honda HRC ahead of the official test on Tuesday – when they made contact.

Espargaro stopped in his grid box, and Morbidelli ran into the back of him, falling as a result. Morbidelli would start the race from pit lane but retire with a left hand fracture after one lap.

Espargaro did a stoppie as he pulled up to his box, but explained that this was something normal to do, and also not necessarily down to the need to set the front start device.

“I was stopping in my place,” Aleix Espargaro explained after the race.

“Okay, I braked a little bit harder, but also when you don’t have the device sometimes you brake hard to warm up the brakes or whatever. 

“But I was in my place, doesn’t matter how strong I brake or not – he didn’t see me.”

He added: “He didn’t see me, so it’s not about how I braked – he was not looking straight.

“For me, it can happen, I would not blame him. 

“I feel bad also because he has an injury, but he has to be more careful because every weekend it happens one thing or the other.

“So, to me, he needs to be a little bit more focused.”

Espargaro said that seeing Morbidelli on the floor after the contact, and knowing that he suffered an injury, meant he could not be angry with the VR46 Ducati rider, who has been involved in several incidents this season including with Espargaro himself at Silverstone, even if this didn’t acquit the Italian of blame.

“I felt bad for him, really,” he said.

“Also, last race of the season, I saw him on the floor – I didn’t like it at all. 

“But I was like, it can happen at the beginning of the grid when everyone is braking, but not when you are in your place; and I was not P21 that he came with speed, I was P14, so mid-grid. 

“You have to be careful, you have to go slow in that place, you have to be super-focused; super-focused because we have to do many things, engage things, a lot of buttons. You have to be concentrated and look straight.”

Morbidelli will not receive a penalty for the incident, it having been deemed by the MotoGP Stewards that he effectively penalised himself by falling and sustaining the injury to his left hand.

Espargaro was not especially concerned by whether the incident was worthy of a penalty or not.

“I don’t know,” he said. “To me, when it’s dangerous your manoeuvre it has to be a penalty, and he had to be more focused. 

“I feel sorry for him because he has the injury but he can hurt me a lot. You have to be focused. 

“I don’t care about the penalty but he has to be more concentrated because it’s not the first time – every weekend has something about the focus and concentration.

“So, he has a big injury in the hand so hopefully he can recover quick.”

Bike damage “a shame”

Espargaro suffered damage to several areas of his bike as a result of the contact, including footpegs and exhausts, that cost him performance from the beginning of the race and substantially affected his riding.

“It’s a shame because the bike didn’t work at all, I had also the exhaust touching the foot,” he said.

He added: “I [lost] some parts from the exhaust. From the beginning, the bike was very slow because no torque due to both exhausts were broken. 

“I had no engine brake because the exhaust valve was broken, so no engine braking. 

“The problem was the footpeg I saw from the beginning was moving. On the right corners I tried to not push much because it was moving, every lap more and more, and the last five laps it started to touch the floor because there were no bolts anymore. 

“Also the swingarm and everything was destroyed because he impacted me quite heavy. 

“I was fast. It’s a shame because I was very good, but it can happen.”