Maverick Vinales, once his anger over the accident that ousted him from the race had subsided, he lucidly analyzed both the accident and what happened after in the gravel and then with the stewards. Vinales was convinced he could win today and for this reason he was particularly angry with Pecco Bagnaia.
A first analysis on him and Pecco…
“What we know for sure is that he is fair play riders, but I think that in these races we have to calm down a bit otherwise no one gets to the end of the season. Taking zero points when today we could have gone on to win, it’s tough”
On the altercation with Bagnaia in the gravel…
“The adrenaline is high there, I’m not saying it because of Pecco, but many riders need to calm down a bit, we are the example for Moto3. I got really pissed because I felt I could go on to win, it was hard to accept that we hit the ground, but as I said before both Pecco and I are pretty clean riders”
More about the incident…
“I passed Pecco in a way that was perhaps too clean and I went a tad wide, then I went to change direction and found Pecco, I thought he would leave me a little more space and we touched, you saw the rest. Unfortunately we did collided in the worst place on the track. Too bad because I had clearly overtaken him. From my point of view, he could have left a little more space in that change of direction. It was a shame for both of us because we ended up with zero points, still in a weekend where we felt we had a lot of potential. I didn’t know where he was on the track. I think when he changed direction he could see me a bit. But it’s always complicated, everyone has their own point of view and I think the Stewards will have to decide but for me in the end it’s nothing more than a race incident. It’s a real shame, in the race we were perhaps the fastest”
Is there a manager?
“It’s hard to figure out if someone is responsible, the only thing is that he could have left me a little more space. I didn’t see him, then I think he touched the front brake and I couldn’t do anything, I wanted to stay attached to the bike, but the wall was too close”
Have you talked to the stewards?
“Yes, and also with Pecco, we have expressed our point of view. Pecco and I are among the cleanest on the track”
What happened after the accident?
“The emotion, the adrenaline, I was very angry with him, because I could have won. But then we shook hands (as you can see in the video at the end of the article, ed), we know that things like this can happen in a race And we know how important respect between riders is”