MotoGP, Aleix Espargaro: "Good thing Morbidelli didn't get my foot!"

We've seen collisions on the grid in the past, both with cars and with motorcycles, but the one that happened on the Valencia GP grid could have had serious consequences. Morbidelli was riding the VR46 team's Ducati and ended up crashing into the right side of Espargaró's Honda, which was already stopped in its position. The impact knocked him to the ground, causing him to fracture his left ring finger, an injury he only realized he had after starting from the pit lane, so he decided to withdraw.

"I don't know what to say," the Honda test rider commented. "When I felt the very violent impact, I looked to the right, saw him and thought, 'I can't believe it'. Then, seeing him on the ground, I felt bad, especially because it was the last race of the year. But you have to stay focused. It's one thing making contact at high speed, as sometimes happens at Mugello, it's another crashing with the bikes stopped on the grid. And he didn't even start from the back. He was in the middle of the grid. More attention is needed. He destroyed my bike, bending the exhaust, breaking the brake, the footrest, and the rear device. If he had gotten my foot instead... He also suffered a serious injury. I wish him a speedy recovery. It's really bad luck on the eve of the winter break."

Espargaró then explained what the fragment was that flew off of his Honda at the light.

"After the impact, I saw that the exhaust was full of pieces of his wing. I removed almost all of them, but one was still stuck and came off when I accelerated. But the real problem was that, as soon as I started, I realized that the device wasn't working, and the bike was not pushing, because the exhausts were bent. I also had no engine brake. The exhaust valve had been ripped off. Also, the footpeg was moving and starting to touch the asphalt, more and more, lap after lap, until it came off. At that point, it was rubbing directly on the ground, and I had to stop."