Aleix Espargaro has slammed the MotoGP stewards for not acting during the French Grand Prix when the Aprilia rider was caught up in an altercation with other rivals.
Espargaro’s race at Le Mans saw him run third in the nascent stages, but two contentious incidents saw him drop down the order to finish in an eventual ninth place.
The Spaniard was made to run wide and lose several positions when Ducati’s Enea Bastianini slotted his bike on the inside of the Aprilia at Turns 9 and 10 on Lap 7.
Espargaro would be incensed again on the final tour as Franco Morbidelli made an audacious lunge at the final corner, costing him a place also to KTM’s Brad Binder.
Speaking to Autosport post-race, Espargaro made it clear that he was baffled as to the reasons behind the stewards not investigating either incident in further detail.
“The pace was good enough to finish in the top five but Enea hit me at very, very high speed. Luckily it was the run-off area,” he said.
“I don’t understand why he didn’t get the penalty for the action and then I lost a lot of time behind Diggia [Fabio Di Giannantonio], behind [Fabio] Quartararo. I overtook them a couple of times but they overtook me again.
“Then on the last chicane Franco hit me very hard and even Binder overtook me. Then he apologised after the chequered flag but also no penalty. Nothing I could do, really. It was a very strange race.”
Espargaro chose not to speak to the stewards and race control to explain his thoughts on the race, citing that the stewards would continue to act in the same manner.
“Nothing will change, so, no,” he added. “I’m relaxed, I don’t care.
“They saw the images, they didn’t act. They say, ‘I would like that you come and explain’. We try. But nothing changes, I don’t mind to keep going.”
Morbidelli provided his view from their final corner altercation, with the Italian rider stating: “I just tried an overtake, an overtaking manoeuvre in the last corner and he didn’t look very happy about it. But I’m used to his behaviour now. We didn’t even touch.”
Morbidelli and Espargaro had a previous clash when the Aprilia rider slapped the helmet of the then-Yamaha rider when the two collided in practice in Qatar last term.
Regarding his incident with Bastianini, Espargago clarified that there was no bike-to-bike contact, but admitted he had to run wide to avoid either riders’ race ending.
“[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 also crash,” he explained.
“So the feeling is that they just put a penalty if you crash. But you have to judge and penalise the action, not the outcome, not the result.
“If I hold the line we both had a big fly, we were very fast and I saw the replay, he [Bastianini] was far when he attacked me. I didn’t really understand.
“I lost my race. I wasn’t that bad at that stage of the race. Not really to fight for the victory, for the podium, but I was good. But I lost six seconds there.”
