Aleix Espargaro questions penalties after feisty exchange with Franco Morbidelli
Aleix Espargaro was on the receiving e🐼nd of some close moves in S😼unday’s French MotoGP race.
An eventful pair of races at Le Mans saw 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Aleix Espargaro serve a double long lap penalty for jumping the start in the Sprint, salvaging fifth, before a pair of incidents cost him dearly in t💛he grand prix.
The first was a close pass b🍷y Enea Bastianini, which forced Espargไaro to straight-line the Turn 9 chicane and also allowed Fabio Quartararo to overtake, leaving him in eighth.
But Bastianini had cut the corner and was given a Long Lap penalty for failing to back off by at least one second (but not for the actual pas🐈s on Esparg൲aro).
Bastianini's penalty put Es൩pargaro into seventh, where he remained after Quartararo fell and Bastianini re-passed.🦋 However, he lost two more places on the final lap during a pass by Morbidelli, leaving him ninth.
“It was a pi🔯ty about Aleix because he started strong but then found himself in a few battles that caused🉐 him to lose rhythm,” said Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola.
“First an aggressiv♌e𒅌 move by Bastianini and then, at the end of the race, Morbidelli also cost him two positions.
ꦏ"It’s difficult 🌳to find your pace when these types of episodes occur.”
| — MotoGP on TNT Sports (@motogpontnt)Afterwards, Espargaro que♏stioned why penalties don’t seem to be applied if a rider is fo🎀rced to take evasive action to avoid an accident.
“With Enea, I had to pick up the bike, it was very quick. But Franco also, if I didn’t pick up 🐷the bike, I would crash,” Espargaro said.
“So the 🏅feeling is that they just put a penalty if you crash.
“But what you have to judge and penalise is the action, not the outcome. If I held th✤e line, we both would have had a big [accident].
“So I didn’t really understand, but it’s OK.”
The lap times suggest Espargaro, who was holding third place in the early stages, lost aꦕround 3 seconds during the incidents.
If that is subtracted from his +11.3s finishing time, he would꧋ have been around sixth place, direc🌟tly behind team-mate Maverick Vinales.
“I expected to be faster, sincerely, but I didn’t have grip really,” he said. “I expected with this low temperature to h🌜ave better traction, but [on Saturday] I felt a lot stronger.”
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen ♐Valentino🧜 Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
