Franco Morbidelli has explained the circumstances behind his impeding of MotoGP points leader Pecco Bagnaia on Saturday at Sepang, which was described by Ducati as something “not expected from a professional rider”.
Morbidelli interrupted the flying laps of both Bagnaia and Marc Marquez, following close behind, by riding slowly on the racing line in the closing minutes of third practice.
Bagnaia crashed the following lap and, remarkably, missed out on a direct Q2 spot while having the same best laptime was none other than Morbidelli – who got the nod within the combined practice classification top 10 due to a better second-best lap. Marquez also went to Q1.
“Morbidelli did a very very bad thing, very very dangerous,” said Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi. “I think that he can ruin a championship with stuff like that. We are not expecting this from professional riders.”
Bagnaia was also stewing in the aftermath, although subsequently accepted fellow Valentino Rossi protege Morbidelli’s apology, saying that “this kind of thing can happen” and that he’d overreacted.
Morbidelli received a double long lap penalty for Sunday’s race as a result of the incident, and, though naming rain drops in that moment and the resulting rain flags as an extenuating circumstance, felt it was warranted.
“I just came out from the pitbox, I was paying attention to the rain, to the flags, it was raining and this track is a track that you can be in one corner and it can be completely dry, and you can reach the next corner and it’s pouring bullets,” he explained.
“I was trying to pay a lot of attention to what’s going on – first of all in front of me because there were some riders cruising, and then second of all to the flags and to the sky.
“And I didn’t keep some space for caring about who was coming behind me, and Pecco was coming really hot behind me, I slowed him down and the penalty is correct.
“It’s fair.”
It’s not the first time Morbidelli received a penalty for Sunday this season. He was assessed a three-place grid drop for an out-of-place practice start in Indonesia, which led to something of a near-miss with Joan Mir, and then served a long-lap penalty at Assen for getting in the way of Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini in practice.
Of this being a double long lap penalty, he said; “Unfortunately I had two episodes in Assen. And it’s gonna be like that. It’s the rules. I take it.”
It is worth noting Morbidelli also seemed to get in the way of Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo earlier in the session.
And the contrite Italian admitted that he would like to see the riders get more assistance in terms of knowing when they need to get out of the way.
“For sure, as I think, we can make some progress on this, like blue flags, helping the rider to know a little bit more what’s going on around him and behind him especially.
“But… if I would’ve had more attention to what was going on behind me, I would’ve avoided this kind of episode [with Bagnaia].”
The penalty aside – or maybe even included – it was almost certainly the best day of what has been a really dour year for Morbidelli, who so far has just a single top-10 finish in his first full season as a Yamaha rider.
Single-lap pace has been a particular shortcoming for the Italian in 2022, which was why making Q2 directly – even by the narrowest of margins – and then qualifying as high as seventh has come as a massive boon.
“Finally a good day, a good qualifying, good time attacks this morning and this afternoon.
“Good. It feels good. We worked well. We started the weekend well, and then we kept progressing and working well, and we were able to maintain the level we have with the used tyres also with the time attack – which is great! Which brings us up there [in the pecking order].
“For sure tomorrow the two long lap penalties will hit our race pretty hard, but it’s okay.
“There are many many positive things about this weekend. We take them. The crew deserves this kind of performance, and I’m happy about that.”
It was the first time this season that Morbidelli outqualified team-mate Fabio Quartararo.
Asked whether he would look to assist Quartararo tomorrow in the Frenchman’s quest to preserve his title hopes – hit today by a sub-par qualifying and a small fracture to his middle finger sustained in a practice crash – Morbidelli said: “I will have to do my race. I will have to do the best that I can – don’t get involved in fights that don’t belong to me, but anyway do the best race that I can.”
