Rins sorry: 'I f**ked Frankie's race'

Franco Morbidelli's Aragon MotoGP lasted just eleven corners before he was turfed-off by Alex Rins, when the Suzuki rider misjudged his braking point.

While Morbidelli was down and out, Rins remained upright and eventually recovered to finish in ninth place, after serving a penalty.

The Spaniard then went straight to the Petronas Yamaha garage to apologise after the race.

"I want to say sorry to Frankie because I f**ked his race. I've already been to his box to apologise," Rins confirmed.

The #42 had to serve a Long Lap penalty for causing the collision, a decision he completely accepted.

"After the incident I was P19, then I recovered to P12 when I received the Long Lap penalty, which I completely accept," said Rins, who added that the choice of a Long Lap was an appropriate sanction.

"I destroyed [Morbidelli's] race, so if I was in his skin I would be very angry. But I think the Long Lap penalty is enough.

"If he crashed while I continued in 9th position, maybe I would accept getting a stronger penalty. But going back to P19, then recovering to 12th, then having Long Lap penalty… I think it's enough.

"I lost contact with Petrucci's group and my tyre suffered a lot to recover those seconds back. But finally I was ninth position, which for the points was not so bad."

Morbidelli called the clash an unlucky racing incident.

"What can I say? Unfortunately, he made a mistake and I was there. That's what you call bad luck," Morbidelli said.

"He said sorry for the mistake he made, and I would say it's a race situation, you can make mistakes, and of course he was trying to recover many positions, because he was starting from far behind and he had also a really good pace.

"But maybe he was in a little bit too much of a rush."

Morbidelli also felt the Long Lap, although it cost Rins less than one-second, was a sufficient penalty.

"I was fine with the Long Lap penalty. You have to pay for a mistake which you make," he said.

The other 'penalty' for Rins came in the form of a broken winglet, missing from the right side of his bike for the rest of the grand prix.

"It felt strange. I didn't know until I arrived in the box and said 'it was difficult to turn on the right side', then they told me 'you saw the bike?'" Rins said. "I also had a little bit more wheelie exiting onto the long straight."

Despite the incident, Rins has regained third in the world championship from Danilo Petrucci by a single point.