Johann Zarco feels he would be labelled a “murderer” if he’d done the manoeuvre that left MotoGP rival Pol Espargaro saddled with a grid penalty for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
Espargaro’s Honda rejoined right ahead of and frighteningly close to Zarco’s Ducati after going off at the Turn 8 right-hander during Friday’s first practice session, and was adjudged to have “rejoined the track unsafely, causing a dangerous situation for another rider”.
“Very close,” said Zarco of the run-in. “I saw him going wide, but… I would not expect him to come back like this.
“It was a lap that I was trying to do well, and I had to close the gas to avoid him.
“We could not close the eyes on this thing. Because I know that for this kind of thing some other would describe me like a murderer. That’s why I could not close the eyes on this one. I even got scared for this one.”
Zarco has had his disagreements with the Espargaro family in the past, having been criticised by Pol in 2020 over a collision at Brno and then having a subsequent dispute with Aleix Espargaro later that year.
Rejoining the track in an unsafe matter! 😮@polespargaro's close moment with @JohannZarco1 landed him with a 3-place grid penalty for Sunday 👊#MalaysianGP 🇲🇾 pic.twitter.com/ntODwaf1HX
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 21, 2022
Also that year, his reputation took a hit due to his role in creating the terrifying Red Bull Ring accident in which Franco Morbidelli’s Yamaha threaded the needle at speed between two other Yamahas, those of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, making a sharp turn.
And Zarco’s ‘murderer’ comment is perhaps a reference to Morbidelli having labelled him a ‘half a killer’ in the aftermath of that accident.
Espargaro’s stewards rant
For his part, Espargaro felt that though the incident looked bad there were serious extenuating circumstances that had been ignored by the stewards in making their verdict.
The Spaniard, who insisted the penalty was “for sure” not justified, said he had to rejoin the track in the way he did because he’d gone through the entire the painted green run-off area and was powering through the grass, about to crash.
“I’m pretty angry,” Espargaro said. “Because, if you see the image, for sure you can understand the penalty. But there are things going on, why I just went to the track so fast.
“Because the crash is coming! Because in that place it should be green area, close to the kerb, to the end of the kerb, to rejoin the track slowly as in all the other tracks in the world – but there was grass completely in one point, so I needed to avoid the grass and go to the track.
“That’s why I met with Johann. Apart from that, it was the second lap of FP1, which, everyone is trying to feel it out how to ride in this place. Plus, that lap was cancelled for both of us because we were under yellow flags.
“So… if you consider it all – okay, the action was not nice, I’m the first one I don’t want to do this kind of things, but you need to understand the full situation, the full image of the story. And it’s the same as always.”
Espargaro repeatedly stressed he was unhappy that the stewards hadn’t gone to the corner in question to verify his account.
“You talk to them, they say yes, then you got out of the room, you enter 30 seconds after, and then they tell you you are penalised.
“It’s a bad way to rejoin the track but you say ‘okay, you hear what I’m saying, or am I just talking to the wall?’. They say ‘yes, we hear you but it’s bad rejoining on the track’. It’s what it is.
“They don’t know. They are not on a MotoGP bike at this speed. So they should listen a little bit more to the riders when we have things to say.
“And it’s a complaint that I say, but we all complain in the safety commission about the same thing. They don’t hear us.”
