Franco Morbidelli had a bad day today. His race was practically over on the first lap when Pol Espargarò deceived him with a slightly exaggerated move and made him a mistake. After trying to keep the bike upright in the gravel, Franco fell badly and hit his already injured leg, raising concerns that he may have made the situation worse.
Franco then actually got up and pitted his M1 back to switch to the second bike and try to finish the race with a few points.
“I had the accident in the dry part of the race – explained Morbidelli – I touched Pol Espargar and went off the track. I could no longer control the bike in the gravel, fell and injured my knee again, which is still not okay. When I saw it was raining, I thought I’d be pitting the bike back to at least finish the race. I knew there would be a lot of crashes so I figured I could score some points. There have been multiple crashes but not enough I would say. I got close to the points but I didn’t get any. It was a tough race, now I have to rest, try to recover as much as possible from this minor injury to get to Mugello in perfect shape. “
Was that only Pol’s responsibility at the time?
“I think the responsibility is mutual. When I saw Pol made that little mistake, I thought he was going out. But actually he was immediately very aggressive, he let go of the brake to get past Valentino. I hit him in the rear and went off the track. This is the accident as I see it. At that moment I was also a bit scared because there was a certain speed difference between him and me and it’s always dangerous. These are dangerous moments, but these are the races. “
Was he too aggressive?
“Pol’s entry was sudden, a lot. But it cannot be called a failure and it cannot be defined as a dangerous maneuver. It can only be described as a very aggressive maneuver and that surprised me. “
When you fell, it looked like you injured yourself again …
“The pain is severe, but only for a short time. I sat down for a moment, breathed, and quickly regained my strength. I realized it was raining so I decided to go back into the race. It’s the meniscus and a ligament that are damaged, let’s say they are imperfect. “
Do you have to operate?
“An operation is out of the question at the moment. We’ve actually been in the surgical zone for a long time, but this type of injury can be contained by doing a great job on the muscle and that’s what we want to do. I want to avoid this surgery so I’ll try to work as much as possible. If I should choose not to have any problems, I’ll have to go for a nice little operation, an idea that I don’t like at all. “
Are you at least leaving this weekend with something good?
“As of this weekend, I’ll take a nice improvement in the wet and I’m happy with it. I was quick in the dry too, so that’s okay.”