MotoGP is still dealing with the after-effects of Francesco Bagnaia's collision with Alex Marquez in the Aragon Grand Prix.
While Marc Marquez's stunning comeback win in Spain after a 1000-day drought generated plenty of headlines, the aftermath of the weekend was dominated by reactions and public judgement over the crash between his younger brother Alex and world champion Bagnaia six laps from the chequered flag.
Both were lucky to escape injury and the comprehensive TV coverage from multiple angles could not clearly discern blame.
Bagnaia’s immediate comments in the wake of his second DNF this season and while nursing a painful neck - “I had 170kg on top of me” - were pointed towards younger Marquez and what he felt was a purposeful move to end his race.
It was an accusation that the Gresini Ducati rider denied to the media and then in a direct social media post.
Bagnaia, walking wounded for the second year in a row coming into his home grand prix (he lives only a few kilometres away in Pesaro), apologised in his media duties on Thursday at Misano and reiterated his lament again in the press conference.
The incident lost Bagnaia control of the world championship standings to Jorge Martin, leaving him with a 23-point deficit ahead of the Misano double-header.
The prang instigated debate online and through MotoGP’s official social media channels. A video clip of the incident on the series' Instagram account registered over 317,000 likes and was the most popular premier class clip of the grand prix - and was accompanied by a long scrolling list of comments.
Bagnaia’s words compounded the drama. Alex Marquez accepted the apology in Misano but said the “damage to my person, my team and my image has already been done,” in reference to the reactions.
Several other riders in the paddock also chipped in with comments about the situation.
“There are a lot of hooligans that take the words of the riders to go against the others and this is very bad,” opined KTM test rider Pol Espargaro on the wider context.
“This is the world we live,” attested Aprilia racer Aleix Espargaro, commenting on the tribal nature of MotoGP and fans groups that tend to flare-up at flash points like Aragon.
“Luckily it is not like football but sometimes it’s close. It’s the worst part, especially for the athletes. Today you cannot disappear. You cannot just focus on racing and forget social media. You need to grow up and deal with social media, the pressure, the critics. It is part of our job but not the most beautiful.”
The clash created attention and movement among the MotoGP community and only two weeks after the Austrian Grand Prix had provided one of the more static and uninspiring races of the season.
“Depends how you see it,” Marquez said in the press conference on whether the crash fallout had been ‘good’ for the series.
“Like I said the damage [for me] is already done. I think it is not good for the sport in general. I don’t want to speak more about this chapter. I appreciate that he apologised for his words. That’s it. We are here and we need to be focussed on the track, this is where our job is.”
