Written by Isha Reshmi Mohan, Edited by Meghana Sree
The 2025 MotoGP season kicked off on Friday, and after just two exciting practice sessions, Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia was fired up, following a ‘chaotic’ end to the session.
While Bagnaia was still in discussion with the safety commission, Franco Morbidelli was the first to respond. The Italian rider accepted the penalty given to him but also believed he was the one experiencing a ‘dangerous’ moment.
Morbidelli’s stance
Morbidelli explained his side, mentioning that he had slowed down on track because of the riders in front of him. However, when he turned around, he noticed that Bagnaia had not picked up on what was happening ahead, which led to a minor misunderstanding between them.
When Morbidelli was asked whether a yellow flag should have been shown while the riders ahead were slowing down to prevent the situation, he explained that it all came down to timing and that it was not something that could have been acted on quickly.
He stated: “… the danger was there but actually it was a [limited] situation, a 50/50 situation. Ten to five seconds sooner there would have [still been] yellow flags, five seconds later there were no flags…. It’s MotoGP [it’s a limited situation].”
He also admitted that he should have been smarter in the situation, reflecting on how he takes time to pick up the pace after slowing down. Instead, he felt he should have reacted more quickly to get away from the situation.
Everything had been going well for Morbidelli until his incident with Bagnaia, bringing a bitter end to Friday’s session.
Bagnaia’s response
Returning to Bagnaia, he took another 30 minutes to meet the media, opening with a joke- statement that he was “busy arguing,” which set the tone for the questions to come.
The Ducati rider was visibly frustrated at the final lap, and understandably so, as he had already been held back by a false yellow flag and a collision with Marco Bezzecchi, on top of being slightly late to leave the garage.
He further explained that the safety commission admitted their mistake in calling a yellow flag from Corner 8 to Corner 3 but still refused to reinstate his lap.
Although he was frustrated during the practice session, he made it clear that it was not entirely Morbidelli’s fault and also pointed out the three riders ahead of him who had slowed down.
Despite the disappointing end, he seemed satisfied with his overall performance, as he was not too far off his teammate, Marc Marquez in the first practice session.
Conclusion
Morbidelli has been hit with a three place grid penalty for Sunday’s race while Bagnaia does not get his lap time back adding a bit more pressure for Saturday.
However, following Bagnaia’s public statement against the race direction, race director Mike Webb came out with an apology and also explained why the lap times are cancelled:
“Race Direction determined that the yellow flag was incorrectly displayed on the lap Bagnaia has had cancelled. This was due to human error. We are very unhappy with this unfortunate situation and effect it has had on Pecco’s weekend.
“When a rider passes a yellow flag, their lap is automatically cancelled. This affected various riders today, but unfortunately it was Bagnaia’s fastest lap of the session.
“Laps are cancelled due to passing a yellow flag, not necessarily because a rider passes through a sector with a crash.
“We cannot reverse any cancellation of a lap for any rider who has seen a yellow flag. But we can - and do - apologise to Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team for the human error.”
Comments