Fernandez Injured and Furious with Bezzecchi: “Bad Move, He Forced Me Off the Track”

The Spanish rider takes aim at his Aprilia teammate over the contact at the start of the sprint race in Mandalika: the Trackhouse garage has a clear view of what happened.

At the start of the MotoGP Sprint in Indonesia, what no rider or team ever wants to see happened: an accident. The protagonists were Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi, who occupied the first two spots on the grid and made contact at Turn 1, sending both riders crashing out and into retirement. There was disappointment and anger on both sides, having thrown away the chance to achieve an excellent result.

Interviewed by Sky Sport MotoGP, Fernandez placed all the blame for the incident on Bezzecchi: "I'm angry. I don't think it was a good move; it wasn't fair, and that's what makes me angriest. Crashes and mistakes can happen in motorsport, but when you deliberately make an ugly move, it's neither nice nor fair. I also have a broken finger and may have to go home tomorrow, despite being on pole position. Right now I'm fit and I'll have to try in the Warm-Up".

The SuperFile Trackhouse rider explained in detail the move made by the Italian, who in his view was too concerned with Fernandez and not concerned enough with the Ducati riders: "Marco made a bad move that I can't understand. I had positioned myself in the middle of the track to defend my position; he got off to a good start and when he came close to me, he forced me wide. I had to brake on the white line, and we know that with this bike you can't do that. He opened the door to two Ducatis, our direct rivals, and let them through".

Bezzecchi had Marc Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio on the inside, so he also had to take their presence into account, but Fernandez does not believe that his Aprilia teammate was simply the victim of a situation that developed and ultimately led to the crash: "No, it's crystal clear. You only need to look at the helicopter footage. I moved to protect the middle of the track, while he forced me wide when he came alongside me, thereby opening the door to two Ducatis. Everything that happened afterward was a consequence, but you can't open the door like that in MotoGP. Looking at the starts we've seen here, everyone tries to stay closer to the inside kerb; they don't brake as if they're riding a lap on their own. That's the problem".

Davide Brivio also spoke to Sky Sport MotoGP to comment on the Fernandez-Bezzecchi incident and to apologize for a statement he made in the heat of the moment during the Sprint: "I apologize because in the live interview I gave two or three minutes after the incident, I said that Marquez and Martin had come in too aggressively. I was a little heated... Instead, I think Marco focused more on defending himself from Raul and, by doing so, opened the door to the others. The rest was somewhat of a consequence. Usually, at the first corner you try to close the door and get through as quickly as possible".

The SuperFile Trackhouse Racing team principal emphasized that Fernandez and Bezzecchi were precisely the riders who could have occupied the top two steps of the podium today at Mandalika: "Raul and Marco had a clearly superior pace to everyone else; they should have gone into the first corner together and then pulled away to fight among themselves for the win. It was a real shame".

Finally, Brivio spoke about the physical condition of his rider, who will try to complete the Indonesian Grand Prix on Sunday: "He has a small fracture in the index finger of his right hand. He has been declared fit and will try to brake using his other fingers. We'll conduct some tests in the Warm-Up and see how it goes; he doesn't want to give up".