Marco Bezzecchi says his conduct in manhandling a marshal during MotoGP practice at Valencia was caused by a fear that his burning Ducati bike could explode any moment.
Bezzecchi was fined €1000 by the MotoGP stewards after grabbing and pushing a marshal in an effort to get him to get his crashed Desmosedici extinguished quicker after a fast fall in Saturday morning’s FP3 session.
The stewards’ document described his action as “aggressive and unprofessional” and “detrimental to the interest of the sport”, and Bezzecchi himself sought out the marshal to apologise.
Speaking to media later on Saturday, the VR46 rider explained: “When I heard [the bike ignite], I was laying on the ground – not because I had pain, just because I [tumbled through the gravel] so many times, my head was dizzy, so I didn’t want to stand up and then crash [back down].
“I waited a little bit, and as soon as I felt the fire, the adrenaline put me in a perfect shape.
“I saw the bike and I was a bit scared because the bike burned for so much time.
“I was a bit afraid, this is why also with a marshal I was a bit angry.”
The TV feed footage suggests it was around 40-50 seconds between the bike coming to a halt and catching fire and Bezzecchi grabbing the marshal, who got the fire extinguisher working moments later.
“Obviously he tried his best running from that far. So… after that, I went to speak to the marshal because I was in that moment scared from the crash but also from the bike that was burning, two [more] marshals were there, so if the bike exploded it was dangerous for everyone,” Bezzecchi explained.
“But the marshal was very kind, he said that he also tried to run faster. We hugged, everything went well. ”
Bezzecchi pointed out that Turn 7 – a minor left-hand kink – was an unusual place to crash, and that the marshals’ posts were situated “before, and really after”, which he admits may need addressing now that “we know somebody can crash there”.
Of the crash itself, with start of it unsighted by TV cameras, he said: “From the images looks like [I lost] the front. Everyone asks me if I lost the front. But I lost a little bit the rear – as soon as I rolled off because I heard this, the rear slid even more and put me in the sky.
“Very strange, also from the data, we couldn’t really see a specific reason for the crash.
“I was not pushing, I was on my out-lap, so I didn’t expect it at all. This is why also I was really surprised. Fortunately, apart from the bike that was really damaged, everything was OK.
“The tyre was OK [in terms of temperature].
“Now we’re trying to analyse deeper the data, to see if I maybe did a different manoeuvre than normal, but doesn’t look like this.”
