SCARPERIA (FLORENCE). Virtually all of the MotoGP colleagues commented with pain on the death of Jason Dupasquier. «I fell immediately, but the main thing today is that we lost a 19-year-old boy – are the words of Francesco Pecco Bagnaia to the microphones of Sky Sport -. The spread of the news was not managed correctly. It was already difficult to accept yesterday. The minute of silence before the race shook me a lot, I was not at all calm and concentrated. I don’t give a damn about having crashed today, let’s think about the next one in Barcelona. That’s how it went. I think that if it had happened to a MotoGP rider, we probably wouldn’t have raced today ». And then: «They are bad situations, even to be told. It’s not a good page in our sport today, I think saying too many words about it doesn’t make sense ».
There cannot be full joy in the victory for Fabio Quartararo: «It was a really strange day, with so many emotions. Even before departure. I don’t have great feelings, I won but we lost one of our friends, it’s not easy ». The thought for that poor boy ran with him: «There was a minute of silence before the race, it was very difficult, every time we passed to turn 9 I thought of Jason, this victory is for him. It was a good weekend for us, I want to dedicate this race to my mother, it’s Mother’s Day in France ».
Miguel Oliveira, second today, points the finger at Moto3: «It is a category where we are going too fast. I know it’s very good for the show. But it becomes more difficult every day for the drivers not to be afraid on the track: having this fight in the race and in practice becomes dangerous ». The Ktm driver explains that «concentrating was difficult for everyone. Before riding a motorcycle at 300km / h you must respect a minute of silence for a rider who is dead, you must have great ability to remove and concentrate on what you have to do, which is our passion ».
There is great pain in the words of Valentino Rossi: «I want to offer my condolences to Jason’s family and his friends, unfortunately the situation was desperate. Knowing that a driver is dead, you wonder if it makes sense to continue racing ». Doubts remain about the meaning of the race: “I think that on the one hand it makes no sense to race, but at the same time I think it still makes sense to race, because avoiding competing would not have changed things”.
For the multiple world champion Marc Marquez: «The weekend was disastrous for motorcycling, it’s not easy to lose a teammate from the paddock, rider or mechanic. «These are the risks we run every time we are on the bike – added the Honda HRC rider, again to the Sky Sport microphones -. It happens, they don’t like it, it’s hard, I send a very big greeting to the team, family and friends ».
Proximity was also expressed by Joan Mir, Suzuki rider, who dedicated to the young Swiss the third place obtained today in the Italian GP: This podium is for Jason, it was really difficult today to put on a helmet to race. It’s for him and his family. “