Two Indonesian Grand Prix podium contenders were left questioning one another's 'intelligence' in the aftermath of the long second-place battle in the Mandalika MotoGP race.
While eventual race winner Fermin Aldeguer was disappearing into the distance, Honda rider Luca Marini and Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez both found themselves in the mix for milestone grand prix podium finishes.
It would have been Marini's first podium as a Honda rider, and Fernandez's first grand prix podium in the premier-class, 24 hours after he'd scored his first MotoGP podium of any kind in the sprint.
But with Marini running third and fourth, KTM rider Pedro Acosta immediately up ahead presented a major obstacle as he deliberately kept the pace down while conserving his tyres and allowed riders further in the pack to enter the podium battle as a consequence.
When a couple of moves by Marini on Acosta were successfully countered by the KTM rider, Fernandez sought to take matters into his own hands - diving down the inside of Marini at the hairpin-esque right-hander Turn 16.
He got the Aprilia stopped nicely but Marini still had the better run on the outside coming up to the next corner, the acute left-hander Turn 17.
With Fernandez now on the inside and refusing to give up on the overtaking move, the pair's lines overlapped on corner entry and they made contact, both losing multiple positions as a consequence, with Marini's race then hurt further by the fact he got Turn 1 wrong in the immediate aftermath.
Marini recovered to fifth at the finish, overtaking Fernandez with two laps to go. He credited Acosta up ahead for running "an amazing race" in successfully "blocking completely everybody" - but felt getting past him would've been a matter of time, after which he believed he would've had the clean air performance for a comfortable second place.
Fernandez, who too felt he had podium pace and lamented that "the result doesn't say what we deserved this weekend", described the clash with Marini as "maybe one of the keys during the race".
"I overtook him at Turn 16, but I was super clean to overtake him, I stopped the bike well - when he saw me he tried to close more the line and in that moment he made something that maybe for me is not super-super intelligent," criticised Fernandez.
"It is something that you can do, but for me [it] was not an intelligent move, what he made.
"In the moment he saw that I was in the same position with [alongside] him, he changed the line. To try to put the bike inside. And in that moment, so sorry, but I didn't have the bike ready to make the last curve, and I touched with him.
"If in that moment I made my curve as normal, maybe the story is a little bit different."
Unsurprisingly, the idea that he had made a "not intelligent move" did not sit well at all with Marini.
“My position was very intelligent," he retorted. "His position was not intelligent.
"I think that Raul was just not intelligent. Me and him, apart from Bez [Marco Bezzecchi, who exited the race on the opening lap] and Fermin, we had the best pace of everybody. We could be easily on the podium, both, together. And would be a fantastic result for Honda and for Aprilia, for his team also, for all the guys.
"It's a pity for all the people who work really hard, not to cheer, not to have a party tonight for this adventure.
"I think that he saw that I was trying to overtake Pedro every lap in two-three places, and it was just a matter of time. Just...it was not a fantastic move from Raul.
"I closed my line because I knew he was there, I wanted to be in front to try again on Pedro, because I was very fast, and it was just a matter of laps that I would complete my overtake on Pedro. It's just a pity for all the guys that are working for us - and for Aprilia, also for them."
Marini continued to vent when prodded further.
"He's unhappy, OK, but he completely pushed me out! I don't know what he wants another rider to do during a race. Let him pass? I don't know.
"It's a little bit strange that he's angry [because I lost more places]. I'm the one that is angry."
