MotoGP rookie Enea Bastianini says the blame for his “crazy” crash on the formation lap of the Italian GP lies with Johann Zarco.
Bastianini was caught out by Zarco braking hard on approach to the Mugello grid, and in himself braking to avoid a collision got his Ducati to flip over its front wheel, hitting Zarco’s bike in the process and ending up on the ground.
It was a violent-looking accident, but Bastianini avoided major injury and was able to run to the pits and head out on his spare bike.
A bizarre incident eliminated @eneabastianini before the #MotoGP race had even started 😲#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/pnjjnyGvkG
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 30, 2021
After the race, Bastianini said Zarco “braked very very strange” and described it as “crazy”.
“I was very, very unlucky and Zarco for me did a big error, because he braked after the last corner very, very hard, and it stayed impossible to me [not to hit him],” he told MotoGP.com.
Zarco did not hear Bastianini’s criticism but made it clear that he was just following a usual start procedure – and said he was glad Bastianini quickly got up on his feet.
“A warm-up lap, exit of the last corner, we all open the throttle quite hard and then brake hard to keep the tyres quite hot, to be ready for the start and the first corner,” said Zarco, who went on to finish the race in fourth place.
“And in the moment I was braking, I got hit pretty strong in the back of the bike, and I saw the bike, I saw Enea, I checked my bike, there was some damage, but seemed nothing bent, so I could maybe race.”
The incident was placed under a post-race investigation, the outcome of which has seemingly not been made official just yet.
In the meantime, Zarco was backed up by seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi, who witnessed the incident unfold right ahead of him,
“Now everybody opens the throttle and everybody brakes very hard [coming to the grid],” Rossi said. “Because you have to, for the start device, and also for the brakes, to have a good temperature on the first corner.
“But you know, every rider thinks to themselves – open throttle, brake, open throttle, brake, this is a normal procedure, but sometimes is dangerous, and the guy behind has to keep attention, because when you brake hard with our bike, the brake stops [the bike].
“So, if you are too close… I was there, I saw the crash of Bastianini from one metre [away] because I was there, and I say ‘fuck, it’s not a great start, because we don’t start yet’. In Italian, we say ‘iniziamo bene’ [what a start]. But it’s a thing that can happen, unfortunately.”
After wheeling out his second bike, a “nervous” Bastianini crashed out immediately at the Biondetti esses.
He says now that his “body is so-so” after the two accidents ahead of next weekend’s Barcelona race.
“Physically I’m not perfect, I have some pain in some part of my body and I have to work a lot with physiotherapy and also with Clinica Mobile in Barcelona to recover at 100%.”
