World motorcycling superstar Valentino Rossi said a rival’s stray bike, travelling at around 300 km/h (187mph), 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 centimetres 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.
Zarco’s
free-wheeling 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,” fumed Rossi.
“Even Zarco’s
Ducati passed a few metres 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.
“The saint of
motorcyclists today did a really great job, it was a very dangerous thing.”
Morbidelli, possibly a team-mate of Rossi’s next season at the Yamaha satellite team, did not mince his words.
‘Like a murderer’
“Zarco is almost
a murderer,” Morbidelli told Sky Sport Italia.
“Braking like this
at 300 km/h 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.”
Rossi insisted that
too many MotoGP riders take too many risks and fail to understand that “our
bikes, at these speeds, are bullets”.
He added: “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 300 km/h,
being a MotoGP, Morbidelli was unable to do anything. Zarco braked in front of
him, Franco couldn’t do anything.”
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
manoeuvre done on purpose and I explained it to Franco and Valentino. But
seeing the two motorcycles completely destroyed was scary.
“We must have been
at 270 km/h at the time of the accident.”
Vinales eventually
finished 10th and is third in the championship standings, 19 points
behind series leader Fabio Quartararo.
“I just heard the
scratching sound of crashed bikes and then I felt the impact of Johann’s bike
hitting the wall,” said the Spaniard.
“Then, when I
looked, I saw one bike coming towards me and I covered my head and the bike
jumped up. For sure we were very lucky today, someone saved us, and this is the
most important.”
Earlier, in the
Moto2 race, Malaysia’s Hafizh Syahrin also had a narrow escape when he crashed
into the bike of Italian Enea Bastianini which was lying in the middle of the
track after a fall.
Syahrin hit the
machine at full speed, sending him through the air, smashing his bike into
pieces.
The stricken
Syahrin was treated on the track and rushed into an ambulance with his team
saying the rider was conscious. He only suffered an injured hip.
