Bezzecchi sticks up for Quartararo: “Nothing crazy, we all fight”
Quartararo was stuck between Bezzecchi and Miguel Oliveira - he made contact with the Italian, before wiping the Portuguese out of the race.
Quartararo was hit with a long lap penalty for the Turn 2 incident, which he insists was unfair, and he has now received the backing of Bezzecchi.
“From my side, I felt somebody hit me,” the Mooney VR46 rider said. “Nothing crazy, but I felt it.
“The reason? I don’t know.
“It’s difficult to know specific reasons.
“Everyone fights for the same, we all want to win, so we all fight for it.
“The first four laps are very, very important. The first four corners are key for the race.
“For example, on the second start, I was a little more careful. But I completely destroyed the race.
“It’s normal to sometimes have these kinds of crashes.”
Bezzecchi insisted he was never in danger of falling due to Quartararo: “I felt something but nothing crazy.”
Both of the races in Jerez this weekend produced a red flag. Oliveira was left with a dislocated shoulder from the incident involving Quartararo and Bezzecchi.
“Too aggressive? For me, it was a situation that was difficult to avoid,” Bezzecchi said about Quartararo.
“The only thing he could do was to brake a little bit earlier.
“Because he was in the middle of me and Miguel, from what I saw.
“But I didn’t have time to look.
“Maybe braking a little bit earlier. But it’s difficult. The space is not so much.
“It’s a mistake that can happen. I don’t want to say anything [bad] about Fabio.
“There are some tracks which are more difficult than others. In Texas, no problem.
“Here, the first corner can be done in many ways. On Saturday I went wide I gained four or five positions.
“The pack can be wider here.
“From my side, it’s difficult to judge. I prefer to ride.”
Bezzecchi entered the fourth round of the championship leading the MotoGP standings, having won his first grand prix in Argentina, also the first win for the Mooney VR46 team.
Valentino Rossi was even in Jerez to oversee the graduates from his academy and the team that bears his name.
But a costly fall later in the Spanish MotoGP meant that Bezzecchi surrendered his lead in the championship to Francesco Bagnaia, the reigning champion and a fellow VR46 Academy graduate, who won the race.
“It was a mistake that I made,” Bezzecchi reflected on the end of his race. “I braked straight. I leaned earlier than the lap before.
“I lost the front.
“I was finally feeling better because I passed Alex Marquez, which I’d spent the race [trying to do].
“As soon as I finally pass him, I made my best lap. I wanted to close the gap to escape from him.
“And I made a small mistake, unfortunately.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
