Marc Marquez believes the onus was on Johann Zarco to avoid the consequences of his crash in the closing minutes of the second Friday MotoGP practice at the Sachsenring.
While starting a flying lap aimed at getting him directly into Q2, Marquez tucked the front coming through the first corner, both he and the bike heading straight at speed into the path of Zarco’s Ducati.
Zarco, who had just come out of the pitlane to the outside of the corner, had Marquez’s Honda RC213V smash into the front of his Desmosedici GP23, nearly splitting it in half and naturally sending Zarco himself to the ground after the violent impact.
The aftermath of the accident raised eyebrows as Marquez, regrouping after a fast roll through the gravel, first gestured in the direction of Zarco and then jogged past the site of the initial impact and towards the pits without coming up to check on the Frenchman, who was clearly awake and alert but obviously shaken up.
🚩 RED FLAG 🚩
A huge crash involving @marcmarquez93 and @JohannZarco1 brings the session to a halt #GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/DxlhMIJQeH
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 16, 2023
It was in stark contrast to Marquez’s previous case of wiping somebody out – when he lost control and hit Jorge Martin before crashing out Miguel Oliveira at the Portuguese Grand Prix, and went to check on Oliveira. And while this time he had the incentive to leg it back to the pits, with the intention of getting his spare bike for another push – especially as the red flag had come out – Marquez’s post-session comments suggest there was another reason to the specifics of his reaction.
“You know that I’m a guy that if I do a mistake, I say this is my mistake,” said Marquez.
“But this time I’m angry because if somebody could avoid the situation, it’s Johann. I mean, the guy that is out of the pitlane is the guy that needs to watch behind, and if somebody’s coming, especially in the last minutes, you need to stop in the pit exit. It’s no meaning [use] to stay out of the line.
“Because as we see in that corner in the past, and this morning even with Aleix Espargaro, with [Fabio] Quartararo, it’s so easy to crash, to lock the front, and more when you are pushing at the end of the practice.
“So, yeah, I lost the front. We were super lucky that we escaped, both of us, from that crash.”
The replays suggest that, just as Zarco was fortunate to escape without injury, Marquez himself was indeed quite lucky too – as he had been sliding parallel to his bike and could’ve also impacted against Zarco’s Ducati had the timing been slightly different.
“I already heard that somebody [said] ‘ah, Marc is dangerous’. If somebody could’ve avoided that situation, it was Johann, it was not me.
“I was pushing for a hotlap – yeah, sorry, guys, I crashed! I didn’t want to crash. Like many riders today crashed – everybody wants to crash? No. I already visited Zarco and he’s okay, so we were super lucky.”
In a separate answer, he suggested Zarco “needed to pay more attention”.
Completely unsurprisingly, Marquez’s comments and view of the incident did not go down well at all with Zarco.
“Just need to control a bit the words because I’m not a stupid guy and he cannot put the fault on me, that’s just ridiculous,” he said.
Zarco said he took a hit “on the top of my bottom” but avoided any fractures and would work his physio to make sure he was in peak condition for Saturday and beyond.
“You can say that the exit of the pitlane is maybe a bit tricky but okay, we are used to it and we try to be careful – as I was really careful, I was waiting on the outside, I went out of the pitlane and then I was braking, then I turned, I saw a big group coming – so, okay, I lifted up the bike. But when I saw the bike of Marc, then fortunately I lifted up my bike a little bit more and it hit only my bike and not my leg or my foot,” he recalled.
And he admitted he was unimpressed not just with Marquez’s version of events, but the fact he hadn’t checked on Zarco’s well-being.
“He could’ve at least – when I was on the floor – come [to check on me]. I can understand that he wanted to run to another bike to try to get another laptime, but because of the red flag he could’ve just seen if it was all okay [with me].
“I like Marc, the way he is riding and the way he’s pushing, he’s a champion, but he’s losing a bit of control now when he speaks. Because you should think twice before speaking.
“Because, to say that it is my fault, this is not acceptable. I am a nice guy. He cannot put the fault on me only because I’m a nice guy and everyone can just show me the finger.”
Zarco then referenced the criticism he’d received back in 2020 for his accident with Franco Morbidelli at the Red Bull Ring, in which Zarco was deemed at fault by the stewards – and in which Morbidelli’s bike had terrifyingly threaded the needle between Yamaha duo Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales.
“It happened the same thing – not the same thing, but another big accident – three years ago. I just have to repeat that I got hit on the back three years ago and everybody was telling that it’s my fault.
“So… today, okay, would’ve been better to not have this, but at least say sorry, it’s all okay. I could see him pretty quick, 15 minutes after practice, he just came pretty quick and said ‘ah, I’ve been scared’ – okay. But don’t say it’s the fault of someone. Because no.
“We have to accept this, and [he’s] just losing a bit of control when he’s speaking now, and that’s a little bit sad.”
