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Lewis Duncan

Zarco: Marquez "should think twice before speaking" after FP2 crash

Marquez lost the front end of his Honda braking for Turn 1 late on in FP2 at the Sachsenring, with his errant bike slamming into the side of Zarco's Pramac Ducati.

Zarco's bike was destroyed in the tangle but both riders were unscathed, while Marquez later blamed the Frenchman for the crash as he felt he wasn't looking where he was going.

Neither rider felt the nature of the pit exit was to blame, with comparisons being drawn to a similar incident between Pol Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci at Aragon in 2016.

Commenting on the incident, Zarco thinks apportioning blame to him is wrong and says Marquez is "losing a bit of control when he is speaking" now.

"I think we can say it was kind of a racing incident," Zarco said. "This can happen, even if it would better it didn't. We can say that the exit of the pitlane is a bit tricky, but we are used to it and we try to be careful, as I was when I tried to [leave].

"I was waiting on the outside, I went out of the pitlane, then I was braking, then I turned and I saw a big group coming. I lifted up the bike, then I saw the bike of Marc. I lifted up my bike a little bit more and he hit only my bike and not my legs or feet.

"First thing, he could have at least come when I was on the floor. I can understand he wanted to run to his bike to get another lap time, but because of the red flag he could have seen it was OK.

"I like the way Marc is riding and the way he is pushing. He is a champion, but he is losing a bit of control when he speaks.

"He should think twice before speaking because just having the idea to say that it is my fault, this is not acceptable.

Johann Zarco, Pramac Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

"I'm a nice guy and he can't put the blame on me because I'm a nice guy. It happened in another big accident three years ago [in Austria 2020 with Franco Morbidelli].

"I got hit on the back three years ago and everyone was saying it was my fault. Today OK it would have been better to not have this, but at least say sorry.

"I saw him 15 minutes after the practice. He came pretty quick and said, 'I was scared'. OK, but don't say it was someone's fault. We have to accept this and he's just losing a bit of control when he's speaking now, which is a bit sad."

Zarco added that he briefly felt some back pain after the crash, but is physically fine, while his bike will need to be completely rebuilt for Saturday.

"I'm OK, physically I'm OK," he noted. "I got a big hit at the top of my bottom, which is why I couldn't move immediately. I was feeling strange, but it seems nothing is broken.

"I will check now with the physiotherapist to see if it's OK for tomorrow. But it's fine.

"We just have a very destroyed bike which the mechanics will stay up late to fix.

"We will have a new chassis tomorrow because the chassis was destroyed.

"But that's part of things. We just need to control our words because I'm not a stupid guy and he cannot put the blame on me. That is just ridiculous."

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