Marco Bezzecchi was penalized with a Long Lap for the incident with Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) during the Sprint race at the MotoGP Australian GP. The stewards considered the effect of aerodynamics as a mitigating factor, which prevented them from giving the Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider a harsher penalty. However, Aleix Espargaró disagrees with this reasoning.
The Aprilia veteran told the press that blaming aerodynamics for what happened doesn’t make sense, especially since this element has been a part of the sport for some time:
– The aero makes the turn 1 at Phillip Island dangerous if you make a mistake. Anyway, if this were the first year with the wings, I could understand, but it’s already been five years; we know what’s happening in turn 1 at Phillip Island. So, I think going behind the aero to justify the actions is not fair.
In Espargaró’s view, the penalty imposed on Bezzecchi was too lenient, although he doesn’t believe the Italian caused the accident intentionally: ‘There are many people saying he was trying to overtake again. I don’t think he did this on purpose, 100%, but it was a big mistake, and he caused a big crash. And putting the penalty at the same level as being in the middle blocking someone is not fair, it’s not good’.