Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo has lambasted both rival Takaaki Nakagami and the stewards over a non-penalised incident on the opening lap of the Argentina Grand Prix.
Quartararo was running 10th at the start of the Sunday race but fell prey to a divebomb from Nakagami, who sent him well wide and forced him to the back of the pack.
In 16th place on the opening lap, ahead of only the crashed KTM of Brad Binder, Quartararo would recover to seventh at the chequered flag, producing a (perhaps uncharacteristically) combative soaked-track performance.
He described himself as both happy and sad to the print media, adding: “Because there is always someone that breaks your balls in the first lap for nothing.
“I was not that far [off the front] and making that kind of movement – it looks like it’s the last lap! It’s not!”
The incident was investigated by the stewards but yielded a “no further action” verdict – something that befuddled Quartararo.
It particularly irked the Frenchman in comparison to the sanction received by his friend, Moto3 title hopeful Ayumu Sasaki, who was forced to drop a position during the lightweight-class race after nudging his way past intriguing wildcard rider David Almansa for second place.
'Welcome to the World Championship!' 👊@AyumuSasaki1 barges @DavidAlmansa22 out of the way! ⚔️#ArgentinaGP 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/XXAURWZTn9
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 2, 2023
“I don’t understand what they are doing, to be honest,” Quartararo vented of the stewards.
“I watched the Moto3 race. Ayumu made an overtake that was for me really clean, but he slightly touched – that in MotoGP we are doing all the time. He had to drop one position.
“And he [Nakagami] just destroyed my race in one corner, and doesn’t have anything, so… I don’t know. It’s still the same people that are doing these things [decisions], but it must’ve been a change, for sure.”
For his part, Nakagami was sorry about the effect on Quartararo’s race, but didn’t feel he had done anything wrong.
“From the outside, it looks a little bit aggressive. But honestly, in that moment I thought I can overtake,” he said.
“Slightly overshot, I missed the apex – but not crazy. It’s not like crazy riding. Yeah, we touched each other a little bit, but this is racing. Nothing to say.
“Luckily, he also didn’t crash – of course he lost the positions, I want to apologise, but, yeah, it’s racing.”
Quartararo’s ride ultimately turned out profoundly impressive, given he was 16 seconds off the leader after 10 laps but finished just 11 seconds off at the end, albeit with the caveat that winner Marco Bezzecchi had clearly eased off out front.
“I saw the team pretty happy,” he said. “Not usual from my crew chief [Diego Gubellini], seeing him really happy like that. I guess my pace was pretty good!
“And also the overtakes and everything. There aren’t many riders that crashed in front of me. I think we can take some positives from the pace we had in the wet.”
