Bagnaia livid, Marquez defiant - Row over 'very dangerous' MotoGP clash

MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia tore into Alex Marquez in the aftermath of their race-ending collision in the Aragon Grand Prix, accusing Marquez of riding "very dangerously" and "deciding to not let me finish the race".

A Turn 12 error from Marquez while trying to hang on for third place against Bagnaia ended up putting them on a collision course at Turn 13 after the change of direction - with the two Ducatis getting intertwined and Bagnaia getting squeezed underneath the bike as they slid towards the gravel.

Bagnaia, who leaves Aragon 23 points down on main title rival Jorge Martin, said that he was "not feeling very well" in the aftermath. "My neck is hurting a lot. Not very good," he said - but he added the pain was "just muscular" and that he was lucky to have avoided any fractures.

Bagnaia unloads

But, hurt and irritated, Bagnaia didn't mince his words when talking about his Gresini counterpart's role in the incident.

"What makes me more angry is looking at the data," he said. "Because as soon as I was entering the corner, I was in front, leaving space because I was knowing that he was there, but I was with much more speed so I didn't need to close the line to be in front.

"And as soon as I entered the corner, I heard his engine, his throttle opening. This is bad.

"And then the things that are even worse is the fact he remained with 40-60% throttle till he crashed. So... it's very dangerous, to have someone that does something like this.

"Because you try to avoid normally contact. You don't want to have contact with anyone. And from the data, from what happened, [it seems] someone doesn't have the same idea."

Bagnaia hinted that he also felt Marquez was fighting a losing battle as he'd "finished everything" in terms of tyre life trying to stay ahead.

And in a later answer he described his exit from the race as "a rider deciding to not let me finish".

Marquez stands his ground

Marquez's position was that of the two of them only Bagnaia could've avoided the crash, because Marquez had not even seen him approach.

He described Bagnaia's attempt as "really brave", adding: "But he knew I was there. So, at least leave me one metre. No more.

"If somebody could have avoided the contact, it was him. I didn't see him in any moment. I was not expecting the contact."

He elaborated that Bagnaia closed the line "too much" coming through the corner - and brought up, as an example, his own cautious approach earlier in the race when Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta were returning to the track up ahead after going wide in battle at the 'reverse Corkscrew'.

"I could've agreed with him if I was coming back off the track," he said of Bagnaia's accusations.

"But... I touched the kerb, just this. I'm inside the track. So the one behind needs to take care."

No further action

Both riders faced the stewards after the incident, albeit separately. Marquez said Bagnaia was there waiting to be called in when he himself was heading out of the stewards' room - and that he decided not to initiate a discussion yet as there were cameras with the Italian, instead hoping to clear the air in private later.

He also emphasised that - even if that won't have impacted the way he approached the corner - he did not know it was Bagnaia because "in my pit board we never put the name [of the rider behind]".

"I want to be clear because people will say 'eh, you need to have more respect for the guys that are playing for the championship'. I didn't know it was him."

A stewards' verdict followed that ruled neither party was predominantly to blame for the incident, with the Freddie Spencer-led panel citing "the grip levels off of the racing line" was a mitigating factor - in that they diminished "the riders' ability to have choices to avoid contact".

Riders split

Many of Bagnaia and Marquez's MotoGP peers were asked about the incident in the aftermath, and there was no universal agreement over who was to blame or what sanction would've been appropriate.

Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo felt Marquez "had a little bit of fault" . "When you go wide like that in Turn 12... it was dirty [off-line] so you know you can't really flick in super-fast," he said. "He was a little bit too outside [to come back like that]."

Trackhouse Aprilia's Miguel Oliveira was a bit more firm in describing it as "Alex's fault".

"He provoked it. That's my way of seeing it. He committed to the corner but he committed half a bike behind [Bagnaia]. He could've shut off the throttle but it happened too quick."

When asked whether there should be a sanction, Oliveira said: "I took a penalty for much less. [But] I can't be the jury. I'm not race direction. Only my opinion, it's worth completely zero."

Jack Miller, current KTM rider and former team-mate of Bagnaia's at Ducati, said he disagreed with the assessment of this crash as a racing incident.

"Seemed like one bloke was in front of the other bloke, and the other bloke rode in the back of him. Obviously, try not to give up a position but the mistake had been made."

But while Miller's stance was that it was "avoidable" - clearly on Marquez's side - he also acknowledged it will have been difficult to judge it just right in the moment, likening it to Moto2 rider Fermin Aldeguer's big high-side earlier in the day through contact with Deniz Oncu.

Another crash from that same Moto2 race came up repeatedly - that of Joe Roberts, although his high-side happened before any contact could happen between himself and American Racing team-mate Marcos Ramirez.

"If Alex looked where is Pecco, if Pecco looked where is Alex, probably this doesn't happen," said Joan Mir. "But it can happen in racing. It almost happened to Roberts and Ramirez also in Moto2. It was a racing incident."

And Johann Zarco likened it to Bagnaia's collision with Maverick Vinales at the French Grand Prix last year, while appearing to suggest that it was up to Bagnaia to back out.

"In the moment they go in the corner, Alex is not far back, maybe still in front. Pecco is on a better line but it's not because Pecco's on a better line that Alex has to say 'OK, I slow down and I wait for Pecco to do the corner'.

"So, I guess that Pecco should've taken into consideration a bit more where Alex is."

Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro offered a similar view, saying that Bagnaia couldn't have expected Marquez to just "disappear".

The elder Marquez, who is famously close with his current team-mate and brother Alex but also will be Bagnaia's team-mate at Ducati next year, was diplomatic in his answer, describing it as "very unlucky" and arguing that his brother "didn't expect to have Pecco there".

Among Bagnaia's fellow VR46 Academy graduates, Luca Marini said he would keep his view of the crash to himself but made it clear he did not see Bagnaia as responsible - while Marco Bezzecchi laid the blame on Marquez.

"I think it's clear, for everybody who's ridden a bike at least once, that when you make a mistake and you go wide, almost outside of the track, and then you come back, first of all you have to check who is coming.

"But also it's clear that when Pecco overtook him, before going right, it's impossible that Alex didn't see him. Either he's blind, or he didn't want to see him."