LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami barely bothered to hide his frustration with team-mate Johann Zarco over the collision that removed Nakagami from the sprint race at his home MotoGP round, the Japanese Grand Prix.
Zarco forced his way down the inside of Nakagami between Turns 1 and 2 in the battle for 17th place on the fifth lap, Nakagami tumbling out of the race after turning in for Turn 2 and taking a hit from his team-mate.
The incident was swiftly put under investigation and the stewards immediately returned a verdict of a long-lap penalty for Zarco for causing a crash. Zarco finished 14th after serving said penalty.
An intra-team fight that didn't end well 😱@takanakagami30 and @JohannZarco1 collide and it's the home hero who crashes out of contention 💥💔#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/MT1TXTKlfL
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 5, 2024
Nakagami, who is contesting his final Japanese GP as a full-time MotoGP rider ahead of a switch to a test and development role next year, spoke matter-of-factly about Zarco's move and why he saw it as needless.
"Yeah, I'm disappointed how I finished the sprint in the gravel. And at the same time I'm disappointed to my team-mate, of course," he said.
"It was an unnecessary movement. We are not fighting even inside the points, and still the beginning of the race... and also not a place to overtake, that corner, between 1 and 2.
"Yeah, part of racing. Fortunately I'm okay. But yeah, I'm so disappointed, at my home GP... but again, we have another chance tomorrow."
For his part, Zarco accepted the penalty - and Nakagami said Zarco had come to apologise.
But Zarco's contrition only extended so far as regretting the crash and understanding it was a penalty as per the current racing guidelines, and his tone did not suggest he saw himself as in the wrong for having attempted the move.
"I agree with the penalty. Because for what the regulation is, it's kind of normal. We had a contact, he crashed, so I go to the long lap," Zarco said.
"I could not slow down well the bike [during the race]. But I have a good corner speed and Taka in that lap was a little bit wide, so I tried to overtake him because it was the only place I could do it.
"I expected that he can see me a bit before and lift up the bike but we had the contact. I didn't want him to have a crash, he's the team-mate so it's not cool. [But] it was the place where I could go in, and I did the maneouvre."
Nakagami reiterated several times he was "so disappointed" with Zarco's action.
"It was not a nice move. He explained to me why he moved like this but... it was difficult [to accept]."
What about Mir?
The Nakagami collision came after Zarco had already been in the vicinity of another Honda crash - as both he and Joan Mir went wide at Turn 11 on the opening lap, Mir falling off his bike in the gravel.
But the available footage was inconclusive, and Mir's post-race comments totally exonerated Zarco as having had nothing to do with the incident - but rather just having got the corner wrong himself while Mir went off ahead of him.
"I touched the kerb in Turn 10, I almost highsided - they [Honda] have to analyse what happened at Turn 11, that I couldn't stop the bike," Mir explained.
"I braked earlier, because I knew what happened in the previous corner, and [still] I went into the gravel because I was not able to stop the bike. Probably the brake pads opened but I didn't feel [that] on the brake lever, so they have to analyse."
Mir did, however, make a reference to the chaotic nature of the battles at the back of MotoGP, where riders "think the points are the opposite, they give more points than in the front!".
And when asked about the LCR collision specifically, Mir said: "As I said, some guys think that the points are [earned] in the opposite side of the board.
"You have to... it's true that you have to always give 100 percent, but sometimes actions like that, to be 16th or 17th, make no sense. For my understanding of racing."
He then made it clear he wasn't trying to single out Zarco, chuckling: "Taka also likes to push [others] a bit, eh?"
