“I will not try any overtake from now on,” Fabio Quartararo sarcastically expresses his anger over stewards’ penalty for the Assen incident
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Fabio Quartararo's crash with Aleix Espargaro
The last time we saw Fabio Quartararo crash was Portuguese GP, 2021. It’s been almost a year that the reigning world champion crashed out of any race before this accident in TT Assen. The Frenchman has been in sublime form off late as he has gone on to secure three podium in the last three races before Assen, which include 2 flawless race wins in Sachsenring and Catalunya.
One thing that makes Fabio Quartararo stand out is his lack of mistakes on the race track despite being under immense pressure. In recent races, we have gotten used to him taking the lead of the race even if he is not on pole. But, it didn’t go according to plan in Assen as Francesco Bagnaia had a blistering start which meant that the French man had to tuck behind him. He also lost another position within a matter of corners to Aleix Espargaro.
This meant that he had to come from behind if he wanted to make it 3 wins out of 3. The three riders at the front were more or less doing the same lap time initially but slowly and steadily, Fabio started to close in on Aleix and decided to make a move into Turn 5. The Frenchman lost the front and slid into the Spaniard. Both were able to continue but Quartararo bizarrely crashed yet again and wasn’t able to finish the race.
Fabio Quartararo furious over stewards’ decision to penalize him
The stewards decided that the first move was overtly ambitious and have decided to award him a long lap penalty for the British GP. Responding to the penalty, Fabio Quartararo said, “From the beginning of the year some riders made racing incident but apparently mine was too dangerous.”
“Next time I will not try any overtake to think about not taking a penalty.”
Yamaha team director Massimo Meregall said, “We view the first crash of Fabio as a race incident and feel that Race Direction’s decision to give him a sanction for the next race is not only harsh considering he took nobody down with him and Aleix still scored points, but it’s also not consistent with race incidents we’ve seen in earlier GPs that were left unpunished.”
From the naked eye, a gap was definitely there for Fabio Quartararo to go for it and like any rider, he did go for it. To hand him a long penalty does sound a little harsh. This is when the reigning world champion’s character will be tested and it’ll be interesting to see how he reacts.
Also read: “I’ll have a word with him,” Max Verstappen questions his LOW awareness rating in F1 22 video game
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Shubham Bajpai
(776 Articles Published)