{"id":289406,"date":"2025-11-17T01:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/289406\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T01:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:38:12","slug":"espargaro-tells-morbidelli-to-focus-after-strange-valencia-gp-grid-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/289406\/","title":{"rendered":"Espargaro tells Morbidelli to “focus” after strange Valencia GP grid crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aleix Espargaro<\/a> has urged Franco Morbidelli<\/a> to be \u201cmore focused\u201d after the VR46 MotoGP rider fractured his hand in their strange crash on the starting grid for the Valencia Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Just moments before the final round of the 2025 season got under way in Spain, Morbidelli clipped the back of Espargaro\u2019s Honda, who had barely stopped in his grid spot after completing a stoppie.<\/p>\n

The contact sent the Italian tumbling onto the ground, as a bewildered Espargaro turned to his side to see the Ducati lying on the ground.<\/p>\n

Morbidelli managed to remount on his bike and take the start from the pitlane, having originally qualified in seventh place, seven spots ahead of Espargaro. But his race ended after only five laps when he returned to the VR46 garage and retired.<\/p>\n

After his early exit, Morbidelli went to see the medical centre, where scans revealed that he had suffered a fracture in his left hand. He has been declared unfit for Tuesday\u2019s post-season Valencia test, meaning he won\u2019t get a chance to ride the GP25 until February\u2019s Sepang test at the earliest.<\/p>\n

Espargaro was sympathetic to Morbidelli given the repercussions of the accident, but stressed that he needs to sharpen his concentration, arguing he is \u201cinvolved in one thing or the other\u201d at every round.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn’t see me. I will not blame him,\u201d said the Honda rider. \u201cI feel bad also because he had an injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he had to be more careful because every weekend one thing or the other happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI saw him on the floor. I didn’t like it at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said it can happen at the beginning of the grid when everybody is braking, but not when you are in your place [in the middle of the grid]. I was not P21 that he came with speed; I was P14, so mid-grid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be careful. You have to go slow in that place. You have to be super focused. Super focused because we have to do many things: engage things, a lot of buttons. We have to be concentrated and look straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stewards are yet to issue a verdict on the incident, with Morbidelli having to visit the medical centre for check-ups.<\/p>\n

Asked if he deserved a penalty for his actions, Espargaro said: \u201cI don’t know. But to me, when your manoeuvre is dangerous, it has to be a penalty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to be more focused. I feel sorry for him because he had the injury, but he can hurt me a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t care about the penalty, but he needs to be more concentrated because it’s not the first time. Every weekend we have something about focus and concentration. He has a big injury in his hand. Hopefully, he can recover quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Franco <\/p>\n

Franco Morbidelli, VR46 Racing Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography \/ LAT Images \/ via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Morbidelli did not appear for his post-race media debrief and was therefore unable to offer his side of the story.<\/p>\n

His team VR46<\/a> issued a brief statement after the accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a crash during the Valencia GP, Franco Morbidelli has been diagnosed with a fracture of the fifth metacarpal of his left hand,\u201d read a statement from VR46. \u201cFranky will miss Tuesday\u2019s test and will not take part today in media activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Espargaro, who was testing a 2026 Honda prototype, retired after just two laps due to the damage his bike sustained in the collision with Morbidelli.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a shame because the bike didn’t work at all,\u201d he said. \u201cI also had the exhaust touching my foot. I was a bit angry at the beginning because I couldn’t do it [race with a damaged bike].\u201d<\/p>\n

Espargaro and Morbidelli have a strained relationship in MotoGP, having been involved in multiple incidents over the last few years.<\/p>\n

In last weekend\u2019s Portuguese GP, the former\u2019s brother Pol Espargaro slammed Morbidelli for \u2018way too aggressive\u2019 riding.<\/a><\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aleix Espargaro has urged Franco Morbidelli to be \u201cmore focused\u201d after the VR46 MotoGP rider fractured his hand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[163184,64,63,166705,23688,9400,5745,806,805,803,804,85,80788,165367,165366],"class_list":["post-289406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-aleix-espargaro","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-espargaro-tells-morbidelli-to-focus-after-strange-valencia-gp-grid-crash","tag-franco-morbidelli","tag-honda-hrc","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-team-vr46","tag-valencia-circuit-ricardo-tormo","tag-valencia-gp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}