16 augustus 2020 – The way Johann Zarco braked for the third corner in the Austrian GP shows, according to Franco Morbidelli, that he cares little about other riders. The Italian was unharmed in the incident.
The Petronas SRT rider was involved in a terrifying accident during the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. The driver tried to overtake Zarco on braking for the slow second corner, but the Frenchman tried to defend his line. Both drivers crashed, Zarco’s machine went straight into the barriers at Turn 3 while Morbidelli’s Yamaha narrowly passed Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales.
Morbidelli has no serious injuries from the incident and is simply hoping to get back into action next weekend. In response, he stated at Sky Italy: “Zarco is one halve killer (an Italian pronunciation ‘mezzo assassino’). To brake in this way at 300 kilometers per hour shows that you don’t care much about yourself and the others on the track. I hope this accident makes him think a little more. It was very dangerous for me, for himself but also for Valentino and Maverick. I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it. I started to brake and then Johann suddenly changed direction, he went far from his line. There was nothing I could do to avoid him, I just got sucked in. “
Zarco got off with a few burns, the driver has not been penalized for the incident to date. The Avintia rider stated that he did not intentionally change direction while braking. Afterwards he spoke to Rossi and Morbidelli to explain “that he is not an idiot”. “The bad things they do [Rossi en Morbidelli] thought I was doing it on purpose, that I wanted to stop Morbidelli… “, said Zarco.” That was not my thought. I was braking, I am aware of that. When I was braking I had no bad thoughts. I saw Franco in the medical center and we hugged each other, we were both terribly shocked. Then I felt bad, bad things were said by Franco and [Valentino]. We have ten minutes [met Rossi] spoken. I explained what happened and it is much better now. It was a very bad moment, luckily no one was hurt. I just talked to Rossi for ten minutes to make it clear I’m not an idiot. ”
In collaboration with Matteo Nugnes
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