Francesco Bagnaia v Maverick Vinales collision at French MotoGP - “a racing incident, but if you apportion blame…”
Bagnaia and Viñales have crashed out!
— MotoGP on BT Sport (@btsportmotogp)
It's getting a bit messy between them on the gravel
And now Es꧋pargaro and Marini have gone down, too.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia and Aprilia’s Vinales made contact as they scrapped for P3 then both cra🍎shed out at Le Mans - they even physically scuffled𓂃 in the gravel before later making up.
Michael Laverty assessed it via BT𒐪 Sport: “A complete racing incident, really.
“If you are going to apportion blame, it goes slig🍸htly on Pecco because he was behind. He had the choice not to lean in on top of Vinales.
“Vinales made𒆙 the move. He had a little bit of rܫoom to control the corner.
“Pecco squared i𝐆t up the inside, trying to lean in. We saw Marc Marquez execute it -🌄 he squared it enough to let the other rider know.
“So Pecco stays on🍸 the line, you’ve got to know that Vinales is going t♓o drift back.”
Sylvain Guintoli added: “I agree. It was Pecco’s fault. A race i꧑ncident, just two guys going for the s☂ame line.
“But Maverick was on the line, on the inside. Pecco sh🐷ould have left more room.
"We sa𒅌w a similar situation with Marc and Jorge Martin. They left room for each oᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚther.
“This was important for Pecco, another 𝓀blow in the cha𓆉mpionship race.”
Marco Bezzecchi, the Mooney VR46 rider, won his 🐷second grand prix of 2023.
James was a sports journalist at Skyꦐ S𒁏ports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
