World motorcycling superstar Valentino Rossi said a rival’s stray bike, traveling at about 300kph, almost “killed me” in a horrifying near-miss at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The 41-year-old Italian, a nine-time world champion, was left badly shaken after Franco Morbidelli’s Yamaha flew across the track just centimeters in front of him.
Morbidelli and the Ducati of Johann Zarco had collided just seconds before the riders slipped through turn four at Spielberg on lap eight of the race. Both men were unseated.
Photo: AFP
Zarco’s freewheeling Ducati also came desperately close to hitting Rossi, as well as his Yamaha factory teammate Maverick Vinales, who was just ahead of him.
“Morbidelli’s bike nearly killed me,” Rossi said. “Even Zarco’s Ducati passed a few meters over me, it was a very dangerous moment.”
Incredibly, Rossi managed to compose himself and, after the race was restarted, came home in fifth place.
“I was so scared. I am shaken, resuming the race was tough. I took the biggest risk of my career,” Rossi told Sky Italia.
“I saw a shadow, I thought it was the helicopter from above, sometimes it happens during the race that the helicopter passes over and casts a shadow. Instead, two bullets arrived,” he said. “The saint of motorcyclists today did a really great job, it was a very dangerous thing.”
Morbidelli, possibly a teammate of Rossi’s next season at the Yamaha satellite team, did not mince his words.
“Zarco is almost a murderer,” Morbidelli told Sky Sport Italia. “Braking like this at 300kph means having little love for yourself or for those you are racing against.”
“I hope this major incident makes Zarco think. It was really dangerous for me, him, for Rossi and Vinales who were up front and saw a bike coming at them at 280 per hour,” he said.
Rossi insisted that too many MotoGP riders take too many risks and fail to understand that “our bikes, at these speeds, are bullets.”
“We’re competing in a very dangerous sport, you have to have respect for those who run on the track with you,” added Rossi after a race won for the second year in succession by Andrea Dovizioso on a factory Ducati.
“Zarco is not new to these things, what happened is very clear: Zarco overtook Morbidelli on the straight and then didn’t want to be overtaken by Franco, so he specifically went to brake in front of him, but at 300kph, being a MotoGP, Morbidelli was unable to do anything. Zarco braked in front of him, Franco couldn’t do anything,” Rossi said.
Zarco, the 30-year-old French rider, said he was unsure what caused the crash.
However, he claimed he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
“I feel like Morbidelli’s bike pushed me. I was able to overtake him in the straight line, I was already well ahead and, when braking, I swerved to the right and that’s where we hit,” he said.
“It was not a maneuver done on purpose, and I explained it to Franco and Valentino, but seeing the two motorcycles completely destroyed was scary,” he said. “We must have been at 270kph at the time of the accident.”
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