Fabio Quartararo blasts “suicide” of Franco Morbidelli in Thai MotoGP

This weekend’s MotoGP Thai Grand Prix was a gradually waning drama, but one of the major sticking points early in the race was contact between Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo, with the latter crashing out.

Quartararo got back on his Yamaha M1 and finished 16th, while Morbidelli eventually crashed at the same corner where he had made contact with Quartararo, having also served a long lap penalty for irresponsible driving.

For Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli’s move, which he described as a ‘suicidal attack’, at turn eight on lap four was the second at that corner in two days to affect his race, after Brad Binder had put him on the exit. there in the Sprint.

“In turn eight, I don’t know what I did with this corner, but twice in a row two people kicked me out of the race,” Quartararo said.

“Yesterday was more of a very aggressive move, but today it was more of a suicide attack. But it’s the race. Unfortunately, we could not control the movement of the others.”

Quartararo had not seen the step back when he spoke to the media after the race in Thailand, but he was confused by what he saw as Morbidelli’s apparent desperation to pass him.

“I didn’t even see it (the Morbidelli incident),” said Quartararo, “but given the speed he was coming into turn eight, I think he was quite far on the brakes and just let go.

“So I think the action was a bit too optimistic, and especially this morning it was very fast. He only had to wait once straight and he would overtake me in turn three.

“There were still 20 laps more, so I don’t think it’s three more corners (behind) that will stop him from getting the podium or the win, so I have nothing more to say about the incident.”

Morbidelli: “I made a mistake”

Morbidelli’s view of the incident was different. Instead of a desperate lunge, the Italian explained that Quartararo had braked earlier than he expected and that his dive in was an attempt at avoidance.

“It was a shame,” Morbidelli said. “I tried to recover, I was very fast and I tried to recover the starting position and I tried to find my own way as quickly as possible.

“But actually I made a mistake with Fabio (Quartararo).

“I didn’t really want to overtake him, but he braked a little bit before me, so at one point I said, ‘Okay, I have to go in and hope he sees me.’

‘But he didn’t. I probably came too late and we hit each other and he ended up on the ground and this ruined his race and started the downward spiral for my race.

“I got a long lap penalty and to recover from that long lap I got a small crease in turn eight, which put me on the ground. Turn eight was really slippery, that corner today.”

Morbidelli added that mistakes were the main thing that undid a weekend in which he had shown decent speed and potential.

“This weekend we have been very fast all weekend, but in the important moments I made mistakes,” he said.

“Yesterday in qualifying we could have started on the front row, but instead we started eleventh because I crashed in turn nine.