Johann Zarco’s penalty for Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix has divided opinion in the MotoGP paddock, while Franco Morbidelli has reiterated his desire to draw a line under the controversial accident.
Zarco will start Sunday’s race from the pitlane as he was deemed at fault for the high-speed collision in last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, where Zarco and Morbidelli ‘s bikes barrelled across the track and narrowly avoided the Yamaha’s of Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi.
Zarco – who did not ride in Friday’s practice sessions as he recovers from surgery on the broken wrist he sustained in the accident – admitted that he was disappointed to have been punished so stringently for his role in the crash.
“We’ve been thinking a lot about what to do,” Zarco told The Race shortly after being declared fit by the MotoGP medical team this evening.
“For my honour, I would have liked to fight against the penalty. But it would have only been for my ego, so I put it aside and it is better to finish the story.
“It could be really interesting on Sunday if it’s raining though because I feel like I can do the whole race and be really fast.”
Following the announcement of the penalty, Morbidelli was adamant that he’s keen to draw a line under the incident.
“The accident is already gone for me,” Morbidelli said.
“From the moment I gave my opinion, the chapter of it in my history was closed and the chapter was opened for the stewards’ panel. It’s their job to analyse racing accidents and their job to give sanctions or not.
“Our job is to ride and to give them the most detailed opinions we can give.
“I don’t need or want any type of revenge against Johann like some people think.
“I have nothing but friendship for him, and I’ve known him since we were kids. I’ve raced against him since we were both on pocket bikes, and I just gave my thoughts about the accident.
“I gave a strong comment after the race because I had just risked my life at 300kph and I was all fizzy, but I came back on that and I have nothing but friendship for Johann now. The chapter is closed and I’m going to keep going with my job, which is riding.”
The majority of other riders in the paddock seem to be in agreement with the penalty, believing it to be a measured response to the 200mph crash.
Among those who gave a more balanced opinion on his penalty was Suzuki’s Joan Mir, with the Spaniard in agreement that the penalty fit the offence and that some form of punishment was needed for what he saw as a “dangerous” overtake through the ultra-fast turn two.
“The punishment isn’t my decision, but if they made the call they think that he deserved it,” Mir said.
“It was a difficult and dangerous manoeuvre and if we don’t penalise them, then they can happen in the future and we don’t want that. Probably he is the example to all the riders to stay more relaxed.”
Rookie factory Honda rider Alex Marquez also added his voice to previous calls this weekend for more consistency in how the FIM Stewards Panel apply sanctions to riders given a number of irregularities in how it has applied penalties since taking over the job of disciplining riders at the start of the 2019 season.
“I don’t know if it’s fair or not,” said Marquez. “It was a really big crash and really dangerous, but the most important thing is that if they [stewards] give him a strong penalty, then they have to do the same for everyone.
“We’ve seen some crashes where there are no penalties for riders, so if they want to be strong and they want to be really serious, they need to be like this for every rider in every case.”
