The British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the stage of the latest disagreement between Franco Morbidelli and Aleix Espargaro - and prompted a curious claim from Morbidelli about a past incident.
Espargaro and Morbidelli most famously had a row in late-2023 when Espargaro slapped Morbidelli on the helmet following an impeding incident during Qatar Grand Prix practice - which led to no shortage of barbs between the two in the media before the matter was squashed.
It came to mind when Espargaro, now a Honda test rider and riding as a wildcard, tucked the front into the Vale chicane and seemed to have removed Morbidelli from the British GP - with their post-crash demeanour making it clear the latter was livid. But the 'slap' wasn't what came up in the aftermath.
CCTV footage of the Morbidelli-Espargaro incident 👀👇#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/7w5O0QlPKT
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 25, 2025
Damage to Morbidelli's Ducati and it being left on the track caused a red flag - and with the race effectively annulled, Morbidelli capitalised on the second chance to fight for the podium and ultimately finish fourth.
A delighted Morbidelli described the race as a "Quentin Tarantino movie" and his own rescued weekend as "like a life story" with "a happy ending".
But it hardly changed his feeling on Espargaro's original mistake.
"I was doing my corner," he said. "And again, this is not the first time Aleix crashed to try to… I don't know to do what, but exactly like in 2020 when he made me lose my second race in Misano and finally made me lose the points for the championship.
"And again this time, also this time he risked just to not let me pass through, and he crashed, again. It was a nasty crash, I'm in pain, I don't know if I have something broken - but I take the positives from the day."
😂😂😂😂😂🍿🍿🍿 https://t.co/4zte2aMi2H
— Aleix Espargaró (@AleixEspargaro) May 26, 2025
His assessment to MotoGP.com was harsher still. "I know his way of acting when I'm around him. It can be even worse actually.
"You can't get along with everybody. I mean, I'm OK with him but he's not OK with me, for sure. I can see that on track, I can see that by the way he has behaved with me throughout all these years. I never felt like a normal opponent. He has always had something extra [against] me, I don't know why."
That Misano 2020 accident
Morbidelli finished 13 points behind champion Joan Mir in the 2020 title race, in a campaign that featured three wins for the then-third-year Petronas Yamaha rider.
One of those wins was the first grand prix of a Misano double-header, but Morbidelli laboured in the second weekend with a stomach sickness, so he qualified much lower and was only running ninth after the start.
He then came under attack from Espargaro - then at Aprilia - at the Quercia corner, and the Spaniard had just edged ahead on corner exit when, wide of the racing line, he lost the bike and crashed out, while sending Morbidelli off-track.
It relegated Morbidelli to 19th and last. He recovered to ninth by race end.
Is Morbidelli right that it cost him the 13 points he was being Mir at the end of that season?
All other things being equal, for a different outcome to the title race Morbidelli would've had to finish the Misano race second, right ahead of Mir.
This is potentially fanciful despite the frontrunner attrition in the race - though Morbidelli could also point out that he was ahead of right ahead of Mir, whose podium was made possible by his 2020 trademark late-race pace, at the time of the accident.
And it’s also likely that Mir - who wrapped that title up with a round to spare - might’ve had a tidier 2020 season finale than he did had there still been a championship on the line because Morbidelli was closer.
Espargaro apologises
Espargaro said he was "very sorry" for causing the crash on Sunday - before describing the discussions with Morbidelli.
"He said to me, 'ah, you hit me again'. I said: 'No, Franco, you have to see the replay, I didn't hit you, I crashed and my bike hit you'. But I think he couldn't listen to me," Espargaro recalled. "Anyway, I can understand him, but nothing I could do.
"Actually the thing that I wanted to do - because I don't want to fight Alex [Rins] or Franco, knowing that they are a lot faster than me, I'm just a wildcard...so I braked a little bit harder, trying to give him the space from the outside, and I made a mistake, I crashed.
"And then the bike hit his rear wheel. I understand him but nothing I could really do."
When told of Espargaro's explanation, Morbidelli said: "It's not a big deal. He won't be here in the next races.”
He then added "forget about it" before saying it again, except this time in a stereotypical New York accent.
