Francesco Bagnaia has lashed out at Alex Marquez for their collision in the Aragon Grand Prix, claiming the Gresini Ducati MotoGP rider “didn’t stop accelerating until he threw me off”.
Marc Marquez’s victory dominated the headlines in Spain on Sunday, but the fallout between his younger brother Alex and Bagnaia was also a major talking point after the race.
Alex Marquez collided with the factory Ducati rider with six laps to go when they were fighting for the last podium place, with contact at Turn 13 sending both of them out of the race.
Bagnaia was trapped under the Gresini GP23 as they slid off the track, before he was finally released when the bike flew over him in the gravel.
The crash left left him with a sore neck from the impact but miraculously neither suffered any serious injuries.
After the incident, Bagnaia and Marquez were summoned separately to the Race Direction office, and after presenting their views, both were cleared of any wrongdoing.
But in his post-race interview, Bagnaia put the blame firmly on Marquez, describing the Spaniard’s actions as “dangerous”.
He said: “It’s not that I have to explain a lot of things. The dynamic is what it is. It’s worrying that there are riders who do certain things. When I was on the inside I felt a hit of gas, and he didn’t stop accelerating until he threw me off.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing crash
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“The worst of all, what makes me most angry is the data. The telemetry reveals that, after the contact, [Marquez] went from accelerating 40% to 60%. It’s dangerous to race with someone who does these things.
“Normally, one tries to avoid contact, although the data shows that there are people who do not see it that way.”
The collision was particularly costly for Bagnaia in the context of the championship battle as he lost further ground to title rival Jorge Martin, with the Pramac rider going on to finish second to increase his advantage to 23 points.
Marquez, on his part, argued that he could not see Bagnaia from his position after the latter had passed him for third.
He believes that the onus was on his rival to avoid a collision.
“Nothing is going to change what happened. If anyone could avoid contact it was him, who knew I was there. I had no knowledge that [Bagnaia] was on the outside,” said the 28-year-old.
“The only thing I told the Race Direction members is that, if he had left a little more space between us and had not traced to the inside, nothing would have happened,” he added.
Bagnaia was upset that in addition to the accident itself that Marquez made no effort to apologise for what happened in the immediate aftermath of the race.
However, Motorsport.com understands that a couple of hours later, when things had cooled down, the two riders met in private in a Ducati truck to clear the air between them.
The meeting was just between the two riders and involved no other team members and lasted less than five minutes in which they exchanged their versions of events.
The meeting took place after the two had spoken with Ducati’s general manager Gigi Dall’igna.
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing crash
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
