Victim of the Japanese LCR rider at the Catalunya GP, the Italian considered that nobody expects a professional rider to make such a mistake in the first brake of a race. The Ducati driver commented that his rival tried to gain ten positions at once, cutting the line of several colleagues
Francesco Bagnaia questioned the maneuver executed by Takaaki Nakagami in the first corner of the MotoGP Catalunya GP. The Italian assured that he was not angry with the outcome of the race, but disappointed with what he considers to be an unexpected performance by a professional rider.
12th on the grid, Nakagami started the race at a fast pace and delayed his braking to try to climb the field in the first few meters. The steering of the RC213V, however, braked, causing the Japanese rider to crash and hit his head on Francesco Bagnaia's rear wheel, knocking the Italian out. To make matters worse, the LCR rider collected Álex Rins, who crashed heavily and fractured his left wrist.
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Nakagami spent the night in hospital under observation, but tests ruled out fractures and other injuries. The Japanese rider also escaped sanctions by the race directorate, which considered the move a "racing incident."
Álex Rins harshly criticized the decision and said that the stewards "are not at the level of MotoGP. Livio Suppo, Suzuki boss, accompanied the rider and considered that it is unacceptable that a move like this escapes without punishment.
Harmed in the crash, Pecco said he was not "angry" about the lack of punishment, but assumed he is "disappointed" to see behavior like this from a professional rider.
"I'm not angry, just disappointed," Bagnaia said. "First of all, I'm happy that Taka is okay, because the crash was ugly. But I'm not mad that the race management didn't do anything with him, because he always does something like that," he followed.
"But from a professional driver like he is, you can't expect a crash on the first brake of the first lap when he was 12th and trying to overtake ten drivers on the first brake," he pondered. "He was crossing the line of many drivers, and if I hadn't been there, he would certainly have been in the gravel, and his race would have been over already.
The Italian also recalled that in last week's Italian GP Rins and Nakagami had already had a controversy, with the Spaniard accusing the Japanese driver of throwing him off the track and causing a crash, also without punishment from the race management.
"So I can't understand what he was hoping to do in that braking. But maybe when he comes back - and I hope he comes back soon - I can ask him that. We are always talking about safety, about how dangerous the Moto3 riders are, but in the last races, with the vacuum and the groups in qualifying, with these kinds of quirks, it's very difficult to get rid of them.We are always talking about safety, how dangerous the Moto3 riders are, but in the last races, with the vacuum and the groups in qualifying, with these kinds of crashes - because at Mugello and here we saw the same rider causing crashes - this is not acceptable," he defended.
With the crash, Pecco is now 66 points behind Quartararo in the World Championship standings, but he refuses to throw in the towel on the title race.
"I was determined to make up 70 points in five races last year, so I'm still determined now to make up 66 in more than five races," he warned. "But for sure, the possibilities are smaller. But we still have possibilities, so I will try," he concluded.
MotoGP returns to the track next June 19 for the German GP at Sachsenring, the tenth round of the 2022 season.GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.