MotoGP

Quartararo in ‘quite fast’ other crash after Aragon MotoGP exit

by Valentin Khorounzhiy, Simon Patterson
3 min read

MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo’s misfortune on Sunday at Aragon wasn’t limited to his exit from the race – as he was also a passenger in another crash.

Quartararo collided with the slowing Honda of Marc Marquez on the opening lap at Turn 3, being launched off his bike and out of the grand prix.

Then, hitching a ride with a marshal on a scooter back to the paddock, he ended up in a second incident.

“After the [race] crash, the marshal just hit a scooter,” he said. “I had a second crash.

“And it was quite fast, actually. Luckily I didn’t take off the helmet.

“But yeah, the marshal just hit face to face with another scooter. Quite fast.”

The scooter crash adds to a ‘when it rains, it pours’ theme for Quartararo’s season, given that his only other previous GP retirement was at Assen – where he crashed twice, albeit both times on his MotoGP bike.

When told of Quartararo’s scooter mishap, KTM’s Brad Binder said: “Honestly, no bullshit, honestly often I get on the back of these scooter dudes, and you see gravel on the access roads and stuff – and I don’t think they know it’s slippery.

“Cause they just go ‘pfffrrr’ through it, and I’m like ‘f**k, thank goodness I’m in leathers’, you know?”

“Luckily I didn’t have nothing from that crash,” Quartararo said of the scooter collision. “Everything I have [in terms of injuries] is from the first crash.

“The marshal I think is a little bit sore also.”

The “everything” Quartararo references is chest burns and “a little bit” of hip pain, neither of which he expects to be a problem in next weekend’s race at Motegi – assuming that takes place.

“[I’m] sore and burnt,” he said. “Because it’s the first time I felt good in Aragon for many years. And crashing in the third corner was not the best.

“Marc turned so well but also had a slide, and I had better traction and didn’t expect him [to slow down] and just hit the back. I don’t remember exactly the situation but it’s a shame, just in the third corner.”

Quartararo admits he was unlikely to have been in contention for victory had he stayed in the race, as the pace of the two leading Ducatis of Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia would’ve too much for him to reel them in.

However, he expected himself to be in the podium battle between Aleix Espargaro, Brad Binder and Jack Miller.

“I think fighting for the top five would’ve been a great result. We know in the race we are always struggling… and I think maybe podium, 3-4-5-6, the group where was Jack, was something that was possible.

“Fighting for the victory, you know, when we are fast in practice, in the race it’s always difficult. But I think for 3-4-5-6 we could’ve fought for.”

Quartararo now heads main rival Bagnaia by 10 points in the standings, with Espargaro a further seven behind.

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