Morbidelli hails “amazing” recovery to fourth in MotoGP British GP

In his 200th MotoGP start, Franco Morbidelli crashed on the opening lap of the British GP after being knocked down by Aleix Espargaro’s bike. The Italian managed to take the restart after fewer than three racing laps had run, and went on to brand his recovery ride to fourth as “amazing.”

Morbidelli recovered to finish fourth in the British Grand Prix, just 0.017 seconds behind Marc Marquez, having battled closely with the Spaniard on the last lap for the final podium spot.

“It was an amazing race. It was an amazing, an incredible weekend,” the VR46 rider said after the race. “Everything happened, but we kept on working, we kept on trying to adjust, we kept on believing.

“And after the race start, after the accident, the penalty, starting from 13th, it’s just incredible to have the chance to fight for the podium and miss it just for 17 milliseconds.

“Okay, it’s a bit bitter, but this weekend for us looked like a life story! And finally, and luckily it was a happy ending, so we’re all happy.”

The Italian added that he “tried everything” in his battle with Marquez for the final podium position.

“I felt that I could have done something better,” Morbidelli said. “But he was better than me on that last lap, and he was able to beat me in a topic where I always, I’m quite strong, which is a head-to-head match.

“Okay, a bit bitter, but good on him. He’s an eight-time world champion, I’ll take it.”

Morbidelli’s race almost came to an early end, when he collided with the bike of Spanish racer Espargaro. The Honda rider suffered a “nasty crash” in the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, which almost took out Morbidelli as well.

“I was doing my corner and again, this is not the first time Aleix crashed to try to… I don’t know what to do,” said the Italian rider.

“But exactly like in 2020, when he made me lose my second race in Misano, and finally made me lose the points for the championship. It was a nasty crash. I’m in pain, I don’t know if I have something broken, but I take the positives of the day, which was the amazing performance we had.

“When we were able to restart things thanks to the guys that did amazing work at the pit box, being on time with everything.

“I take the positives. The negatives, I leave them on some other side.”

Espargaro also offered his perspective on the incident, saying: “I braked a little bit too much, because Franco was outside, so I tried to give more space and instead of that, I just crashed.

Aleix Espargaro, Honda HRC

Photo by: Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images

“And unfortunately, Alex and Franco were outside and the bike hit – I think also Alex – but Franco crashed, so very sorry.

“He said to me, ‘Ah, you hit me again’. I said ‘no Franco, you have to see the replay, I didn’t hit you. I crashed, and my bike hit you.’

“But I think he could not listen to me. Anyway, I can understand him, but nothing I could do.”

Morbidelli’s team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio also had a promising weekend, finishing third in Saturday’s sprint race. But he finished 10th in the GP, saying that he was struggling with the brakes.

He was later promoted to ninth following post-race 16s penalties that were imposed on riders running a lower-than-required tyre pressure. The penalties hit racers including Luca Marini, Enea Bastianini, Lorenzo Savadori, and Somkiat Chantra.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

“I feel like we missed an opportunity today because I was feeling really good with the bike,” Di Giannantonio said. “We did an incredible job all weekend long.

“When I started the race, I was not feeling good with the brakes, so I was not stopping the bike as I wanted, or as yesterday.

“We were losing too much on the braking point. We were losing ground and also positions because at the end, from the back a lot of riders were overtaking me in an easy way because I was braking too early.

“We have to understand, analyse what happened, because for sure, as I said, I feel like we lost an opportunity, because we had the pace to fight for the podium, I guess, like yesterday.”

Di Giannantonio said there were “positives” that he could take to the next race in Aragon, but admitted that he remained “pissed about today.” 

“We have to see also the positive things,” he said. “We’ve done an incredible step forward with the setup with the bike. The feeling with the bike is much better now.”