Aleix Espargaro on Enea Bastianini penalty: “One long lap is embarrassing”

After already taking aim at Bastianini for his role in the turn one incident immediately after the race, Espargaro has since doubled down on his ciritisicm of the penalty awarded to the Italian. 

Bastianini took out four other riders after making a mistake under braking for turn one, which led Espargaro to say a harsher penalty should have been given.

• "Marc Marquez has made up his mind and will join Gresini Ducati in 2024" 
• Bagnaia: “I’m lucky to be here, I have a big hematoma on my right knee”

And the Spaniard has now doubled down on his opinion: "It’s ridiculous, a long lap penalty, when you cause an accident like this. 

"Everyone can make mistakes, I can be the next one. But if you cause an incident like this, on the first corner? Throwing this amount of riders? One long lap penalty is embarrassing."

While Espargaro had clear thoughts on whether the penalty was wrong, Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi, all of whom were in the same press conference with the Aprilia rider spoke about turn one and whether it’s too dangerous based on where the start-finish line is.

"It won’t be different," added Bagnaia. "The difference is that Barcelona is more risky because we arrive in fifth gear and the corner is 90 degrees, so there’s a higher percentage of incidents."

Martin agreed with Bagnaia, adding: "It won’t change a lot. Maybe we arrive more slowly so it’s more difficult to make a mistake but, at the end, we all want to advance our position."

Taking out at the first corner in the last two rounds, Bezzecchi gave an ironic answer which was to do with positioning himself away from the firing line.

"For me, it will be different," said the Mooney VR46 rider. "I’ll put myself on the inside to avoid being taken out by another bike."