{"id":408275,"date":"2026-01-12T12:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/408275\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:36:08","slug":"vr46-on-fierce-franky-clashes-sometimes-you-have-to-take-risks-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/408275\/","title":{"rendered":"VR46 on ‘fierce Franky’ clashes: \u201cSometimes you have to take risks\u201d – Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franco Morbidelli found himself in front of the FIM Stewards more than any other MotoGP rider in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know I’m a fierce rider; I attack whenever I can,\u201d Morbidelli<\/a> said after criticism at the Indonesian Grand Prix. \u201cSometimes I make mistakes, but I’m never malicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

A series of incidents earlier in the year, culminating in a penalty for colliding with Jorge Martin at Catalunya, prompted a \u2018final\u2019 warning from the FIM Stewards, headed by Simon Crafar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year I had my time in the office with Simon,\u201d Morbidelli added. \u201cHe spoke a lot to me. He made me understand how an overtaking should be brought to a rider. And how an overtaking should be brought in such a MotoGP<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morbidelli was again involved in close combat during an opening-lap clash at Portimao but escaped punishment on that occasion.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSometimes things happen, like in [Portimao] where there was no penalty, but we talked with Race Direction,\u201d Pablo Nieto told Crash.net.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I understand Franky. Because what happens if you do not a very good qualifying, start in the back, but are a little bit faster?<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to take risks in the first laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I understand that sometimes things happen, you can make more mistakes, in [a situation] like that. So it’s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Franco <\/p>\n

Franco Morbidelli battles former Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo at the 2025 Malaysian\u2026<\/p>\n

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Nieto stressed that improving qualifying was the key to reducing early-race risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that we have to do is work on qualifying to try to start a little bit more in front. Like this, we can take out all the problems of when you are [fighting] in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morbidelli\u2019s qualifying swung between starting 3rd and 17th on the grid, with an average of seventh.<\/p>\n

Nieto said he likes the current qualifying format – where the top ten riders on Friday afternoon receive direct Qualifying 2 access, then the top two riders in Qualifying 1 – but admitted half of the weekend is determined on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like [the qualifying format] how it is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s very nice because on Friday, you have already \u2018qualifying\u2019.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think let’s say 50% of the weekend is on Friday. Because if you are already in Q2, that means that maybe you can fight for something [good].<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are out of Q2\u2026 if you make one mistake, there\u2019s a yellow flag or something like that, you are out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you are out from Q2, it’s going to be difficult to make a good race. So Friday is already a very, very important day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morbidelli returned to the MotoGP podium, twice, in the early stages of his debut VR46 <\/a>season.<\/p>\n

However, an eventful season ended early when he injured his hand after clipping the back of Aleix Espargaro on the grid at Valencia, also ruling the Italian out of the post-season test.<\/p>\n

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Team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio (GP25) went on to claim sixth in the world championship by 31 points over Morbidelli (GP24).<\/p>\n

VR46 will unveil its 2026 team colours on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franco Morbidelli found himself in front of the FIM Stewards more than any other MotoGP rider in 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,17197,23688,806,805,803,804,15119,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-408275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati","11":"tag-franco-morbidelli","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-pertamina-enduro-vr46-racing","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408275","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=408275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}