Johann Zarco leaves Jerez with two “zeros” and heavy accusations against the head of the MotoGP Steward Panel Freddie Spancer, guilty according to the Frenchman of not knowing how to make the right decisions at the right time. The LCR pilot was at the end removed from the race control room.
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With Aleix everything was solved
Johann Zarco’s race ended forcefully on lap nine, when Aleix Espargaro fell and hit the Frenchman’s bike at the entrance to turn 5, causing him to fall to the ground. In the Spaniard’s reconstruction, the crash was due to the fact that he didn’t want to hit Zarco to pass him, the result: both of them on the run and the race over. The Frenchman does not make a big deal out of it as he recognizes the contact as a “racing accident”: “Coming out of turn 4 going towards turn 5 he came alongside me trying to overtake me again but he was late and so as not to lean on me he lost the front and hit the bike. It can happen, he’s not at fault like I am, whether I receive a penalty or not doesn’t change my life”. Johann, however, takes up what Aleix said about the futility of fighting for a position so far from the top: “Aleix said we shouldn’t have fought like that, we had been through it several times before the crash but it was a good fight even if Aleix doesn’t agree with me. We dueled we didn’t hit each other and I have nothing against him even after the crash, I was fighting for 14th position because it’s the races. I don’t have a bike that allows me to fight for the podium and therefore I fight even just to gain a few points, I have to try while always maintaining control”.
The one with Espargaro was not the Frenchman’s only close encounter: “At the start of the race I also had contact with Acostawe were still in the big group at turn 5, compared to him I had more speed and I tried to take the position at that point, I raised the bike, he was probably surprised too and we had contact but no one fell. When we make the decision to attack someone we accept the possibility of wasting time because there may be contact but we have to control the bike. Pecco did it with Marc and it was incredible, it was a magical action because they were fighting for the victory”.
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The fight with Fast Freddie
At the end of the race Johann Zarco and Aleix Espargaro were summoned by the MotoGP Steward Panel, made up of Freddie Spencer, Andrès Somolinos and Tamara Matko to review what happened: “As far as I’m concerned, when I went to the Steward Panel and Freddie Spencer was watching the contact videos he looked at me as if he wanted me to get angry with Aleix and make a decision. I told him that he is not capable of doing this job because he does not know how to make the right decision at the right time. He doesn’t have to ask me what I want him to do”.
Zarco then continued on what happened in the commissioners’ room: “You can have passion but you’re not in the right place if you can’t make the right decisions and they have to get you out of there. Yesterday in the contact with Binder, Pecco hit Bezzecchi because he raised the bike to avoid Brad and should have been sanctioned. At that moment Aleix agreed with me”. Zarco then spoke about the need to meet with all the riders and seriously address this issue: “In any case, all of us drivers need to agree and talk to have the right people making the decisions. For me, Aleix shouldn’t have been sanctioned, it was a bad place to crash but we didn’t do anything about it, that’s what happened in race direction which wasn’t good. I repeat: Freddie Spencer is not suited to that role. In the end they kicked me out of the room because they said I was too nervous”.
