The ongoing dispute between MotoGP riders Franco Morbidelli and Aleix Espargaró has escalated following their on-track incident. The conflict, which began with a physical altercation during a race, has now intensified through a series of public statements.

Espargaró, the Aprilia rider, was fined 10,000 euros and penalized six grid positions for his actions during the race. He admitted to a severe overreaction, stating, “I had a very bad reaction, I lost my temper in an excessive way.” However, he clarified that his intention was not to hit Morbidelli but to push him away.

Morbidelli’s recent comments have further inflamed the situation. He criticized Espargaró’s behavior, questioning what Espargaró would tell his children about his actions. This personal remark about Espargaró’s family struck a sensitive chord with the Spanish rider.

In response, Espargaró acknowledged his mistake but also criticized Morbidelli for his conduct throughout the season. He accused Morbidelli of consistently causing issues on the track and making disrespectful gestures towards other riders, including Marc Marquez.

Espargaró was particularly upset about Morbidelli bringing his family into the dispute, stating, “What really bothered me is that in his statements he involved my family and my children. He crossed a very sacred line; this will not end here.”

Apart from the ongoing feud, Espargaró is also dealing with a physical injury. He suffered a small fracture in the head of the fibula in his left leg, which forced him to retire early from the Sunday race. Despite the severity of the injury and the associated inflammation, Espargaró is determined to try and compete in the upcoming race at Cheste.

This situation highlights the intense rivalries and emotions in MotoGP, where conflicts on the track can quickly escalate into personal disputes. Espargaró’s reaction and Morbidelli’s comments have added another layer of drama to the already competitive world of motorcycle racing.

O conteúdo Aleix Espargaró threats Franco Morbidelli: “He has crossed a line by including my children in his statements, this will not end here” aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Aleix Espargaró in his debrief was confronted with the event that took place on Saturday between the Spanish rider and Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Franco Morbidelli, which resulted in a penalty of six grid positions lost.

– ‘ I apologize and I’m ashamed of my actions, obviously I accept responsibility and blame, my idea wasn’t to overtake him, but just to let him go. For me, it’s not fair to draw conclusions from the last five seconds of what happened. Franco has been on the circuit for a year without any respect for anyone, in the last race he went at his teammate and didn’t get a penalty, then with Marc he called him a dog, and finally he went at me three times when I was trying to get back on track and he wouldn’t let me, three times. Anyway, I reacted badly and I shouldn’t have done what I did, but I don’t think it’s fair to judge the last five seconds of what happened. The worst thing for me was that at the end of it all he came to speak badly about my family and my children, I’m very angry.

The Aprilia Racing rider came into this weekend with high expectations and wanted to achieve a positive result. Unfortunately, during the Qatar GP, Aleix Espargaró had a racing incident with Miguel Oliveira in the Sprint that left him physically limited and he ended up withdrawing from Sunday’s race.

O conteúdo ‘Franco has been on the circuit for a year without any respect for anyone’ – Aleix Espargaró aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Aleix Espargaro was forced to abandon today’s MotoGP long race due to a lack of strength in the foot of his left leg. The spaniard explained that he was in a lot of pain during the morning, but that wasn’t the reason for his premature end to the race, and recalled that yesterday, after the incident with Miguel Oliveira and Enea Bastianini, he immediately felt that something was wrong.

After six laps, the Aprilia Racing rider abandoned the main race of the weekend and admitted to the pain beforehand: ‘I have a very important fracture in my fibula, but the problem isn’t the fracture itself, it’s that everything is full of blood, the ligaments, the muscles, everything, it was like a compartimental feeling. I took a bomb of drugs to prevent the pain because this morning it was impossible to ride with so much pain’.

Even so, during the race itself, it wasn’t the pain that forced him to give up, as he explained afterwards: ‘During the race I didn’t have any pain, but I didn’t have any strength in my foot because everything was full of blood, my foot was completely blocked and I decided to stop because it was impossible to go up or down the gears’.

And he recalled the incident with the Portuguese CrytoDATA RNF MotoGP Team rider: ‘It’s a shame because I’ve felt very strong since Friday here and yesterday when Miguel hit me very hard in the leg I immediately realised that something was fractured. I’ll try again in Valencia if I can’.

O conteúdo Aleix Espargaro explains why he quit today’s race: ‘Everything was full of blood, my foot was completely blocked’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

After sustaining a fracture in his left fibula, Aleix Espargaró has been declared fit for the MotoGP Qatar GP and can participate in the warm-up session in Losail.

The Aprilia rider will undergo further examination following this session before making a final decision regarding his participation in the main race later in the afternoon.

Espargaró was involved in a heavy crash at the sixth corner of the Sprint race, where he was rear-ended by Miguel Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team/Aprilia), sending him flying off his bike.

O conteúdo Aleix Espargaró declared fit… but still in doubt for the Qatar GP aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The second free practice of the MotoGP Qatar GP was marked by controversy between Aleix Espargaró and Franco Morbidelli. The Spanish rider from Aprilia felt hindered by the slow pace of the Monster Energy Yamaha rival in the racing line, even slapping his helmet on the track.

The gesture earned him strong criticism from Morbidelli and a six-place grid penalty for the main race in Losail. On social media, Espargaró admitted he didn’t deal well with the situation and had an unnecessary reaction, losing his temper with the Italian:

– Here I am with my leg up. The truth is, it was a day to forget, first with the incident with Morbidelli, where I had a very bad reaction. He was cruising on the track, nearly hit me twice for going in the middle of the trajectory. Then he didn’t let me back on the track, and I lost my temper with a totally disproportionate reaction and received a penalty, which in my view is too much, but I accept it because obviously the image is not good.

O conteúdo Aleix Espargaró admits he had a ‘totally disproportionate reaction’ with Franco Morbidelli aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The second free practice of the MotoGP Qatar GP was marked by an incident between Franco Morbidelli and Aleix Espargaró, in which the Aprilia rider slapped the helmet of his rival, resulting in a penalty of six grid positions for the main race. A penalty considered insufficient by the Monster Energy Yamaha rider, who felt deeply disrespected.

Morbidelli explained to the press what happened: ‘Álex Márquez crashed in turn two and there was a yellow flag, so [Jorge] Martín in front of me slowed down, I slowed down as well. But by the time we reached turn four Aleix overtook me and then I overtook him back because I wanted to get back my original position. And then he overtook me like crazy into the turn six, almost crashing and almost making me crash. He touched me’.

Then, the Italian strongly criticized the disrespect he felt he had been subjected to by Espargaró: ‘Then when I was trying to tell him to take it easy – because as always after he banged on me, he got angry and started to make bad gestures as he always does. When I was telling him to take it easy and to chill out, he did what you saw. It’s a huge disrespect action towards me, it’s difficult to take, but I take it’.

As for the penalty given to Espargaró, Morbidelli considers it to be too light: ‘The stewards have been analysing everything and they already took the countermeasures that they thought were more right. According to me, they did nothing, because what they did actually was to put him by my side in tomorrow’s race [starting grid] and make him race in today’s race as if nothing happened. So for me they did nothing, because what he did today it’s a big disrespect towards another competitor that in other sport would have been treated in a much different way. So it’s OK, I keep going’.

O conteúdo Franco Morbidelli slams Aleix Espargaró: ‘It was a huge disrespect from him; the stewards did nothing’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

After Miguel Oliveira, Aleix Espargaro also opted to go to the medical centre at the Losail circuit to check his physical condition. Following the crash, the Aprilia spaniard ended his race and after the medical team’s analysis it was concluded that the rider has a ‘small fracture to the head of his left fibula’.

This has been an atypical and difficult weekend for the eldest of the Espargaro brothers to digest, as he received a heavy fine and penalty (six positions) for this sunday’s race, and the scenario didn’t end there, as after the first tests the injury was confirmed.

We can only wait until tomorrow, as his absence from the long race is not yet a certainty:

O conteúdo Aleix Espargaro in doubt after seeing injury confirmation, ‘a small fracture to the head of his left fibula’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Early in the first lap of the MotoGP Qatar GP Sprint race, two riders were forced to retire in an incident involving a total of four bikes. The situation is under review by the race stewards.

Available footage shows Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) being hit from behind and sent flying, with Miguel Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team/Aprilia) being the one making contact.

Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha) were also in that area and caught up in the incident. Bastianini fell but managed to continue the race. Currently, the incident is being examined by the stewards, and it’s possible that penalties may result for one or more of those involved.

O conteúdo First-lap incident in the Qatar GP Sprint race under review by race stewards aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

World lead, I’m coming for you! There you have it, Jorge Martín won the Sprint race at the Qatar GP and “cut” the lead in the world championship considerably. Fabio Di Giannantonio had no arguments to take the lead and “help” Pecco Bagnaia who ended up in a “disastrous” fifth place.

Everything was in place for the start of the Sprint at Lusail, with a different first grid than usual: Luca Marini took pole position, Fabio Di Giannantonio was second fastest and Álex Márquez third, with the championship leaders – Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín – fourth and fifth respectively, with Johann Zarco closing the second row.

The start went well for Marini, but Martín soon began to gain positions, as did Bagnaia, with both riders side by side. Martín ended up making a mistake and losing positions, before the first (joint) crash of the race involved three riders: Enea Bastianini, Aleix Espargaró and the unlucky Miguel Oliveira.

Start of the race:

Crash:

Martín didn’t want to waste any time and forced his way past Bagnaia, with A. Márquez also passing briefly for the lead, with Marini responding and retaking the lead. Seconds later it was DiGia’s turn to beat Bagnaia.

After three laps Marini was leading by 0.101s over A. Márquez, with Martín in third at 0.296s off the leader. Bagnaia was fifth at 0.895s.

Of the riders who crashed, only Bastianini remained on the track.

Martín moved up to second place and was provisionally gaining four points on the reigning world champion, who remained in fifth.

Di Giannantonio was in good form and reached the top step of the podium after beating his team-mate, who, it should be remembered, still doesn’t have a confirmed place on the grid for 2024.

Halfway through the race, this was the top ten, just moments before Martín took the race lead!

DiGia was in attack mode, with the #49 rising to second shortly afterwards. Even so, the Gresini rider was 0.494s (!) behind Martín. Bagnaia remained fifth, more than 2s behind the leader.

DiGia was one of the fastest and was starting to gain time on Martín, with the latter now leading by 0.219s. The lead increased again, but it remained in the region of 3 tenths of a second and any mistake, no matter how small, could be crucial.

Going into the final lap Martín and DiGia were 0.171s apart.

The race ended shortly afterwards with Martín confirming the victory!

O conteúdo Jorge Martín wins Sprint and “cuts” Bagnaia’s lead in half; Italian was fifth and sees title decision postponed to Valencia aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Two riders didn’t finish the first lap of the MotoGP Qatar GP: Aleix Espargaró and Miguel Oliveira, due to an incident in which Enea Bastianini was also involved.

It all happened at the turn six of the Losail circuit. Apparently, Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team/Aprilia) touched Espargaró’s Aprilia, causing the Spaniard to lose control of his bike and crash. Both riders had to retire.

Running closely, Bastianini (Ducati) couldn’t avoid being caught in the incident and also crashed. However, he managed to continue the race.

You can watch or rewatch the final part of the incident in the following video.

O conteúdo Video: Crash takes Aleix Espargaró and Miguel Oliveira out in the first lap of the Qatar GP aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.