Sepang.- The one in Malaysia has been, without a doubt, the best weekend of the season in terms of speed for Franco Morbidelli, who since the operation in the summer of last year on his knee, his subsequent recovery and promotion to the official Yamaha team , has never been the one who finished runner-up in the world in 2020 with Petronas.
As the season ends and, with it, the options of doing a good role, Morbidelli has been getting nervous and, at some point, he has lost his temper a bit. On Friday, in FP3, he wandered around the track at low speed while, from behind, riders such as Pecco Bagnaia or Marc Márquez arrived, on a fast lap, an action that Race Direction punished with a double long lap for the Roman.
After starting the Sepang race, Morbidelli was very fast, covering the back of his teammate Fabio Quartararo for the first three laps, before having to serve the two long penalty laps, in which he lost three positions in each, going from 6th to 15th place with twelve laps to go.
From then on, he went uphill and gained pace, until arriving, two laps from the end, in 11th, behind Aleix Espargaró. On the last lap, the Italian played it hard and when he reached turn 14, the penultimate, he launched himself on the inside to overtake the Aprilia rider, leaning on the Spaniard’s bike, which he hit and almost made him lose his balance. In the end Morbidelli crossed the finish line tenth.
However, after a series of complaints and the stewards studying the images, Franco was penalized with three seconds, which made him go back to the 11th final position, behind Aleix.
“I was penalized again, for a normal overtake in the penultimate corner,” Morbidelli complained.
“I hope that this action has a lot of repercussion on social networks and on television, to serve as an example of how Race Direction is wrong, and how they were wrong once again,” said the visibly upset Italian.
“They are human, and humans can make mistakes, but it is important to be able to discuss how these maneuvers are judged. There is something wrong, because these things happen too often already,” he invited the debate.
“It’s time to sit down with Race Direction and talk about what’s going on. There is no dialogue between the stewards and the main protagonists of this championship,” referring to the drivers.
“I think they are under a lot of pressure, and this pressure overwhelms them,” he said.
“Too many comments on social networks, everywhere. And I think there is no balance between safety and entertainment.”
For Franco, overtaking was normal, he had no more.
“If I can’t overtake in the penultimate corner, on a bike that can’t overtake on the straight, that means they’re not defending me,” he warned.
“Also, one of his decisions has never been thrown back. Never. In football, and in most sports, decisions are disputed,” was the Italian-Brazilian’s speech.
