An angry Alex Rins reckons that MotoGP’s stewarding panel “don’t deserve to be here” after Takaaki Nakagami escaped punishment for his part in the Catalan Grand Prix Turn 1 crash.
The Suzuki rider was eliminated from a race in an incident with the LCR Honda rider for the second time in as many events after clipping Nakagami at Mugello – an incident most riders sided with the Japanese racer on – before being hit from behind after Nakagami out-braked himself into the opening turn at the start.
Having also taken out Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia in the smash, Rins took ire at the decision of the MotoGP stewards to not penalise Nakagami post-race, the three-time premier class race winner declaring that they “don’t deserve to be here in this championship” and that their course of action “makes no sense.”
“Obviously I care about how Taka is because I saw him in the hospital just now with his face in some pain, but I think he made a big mistake,” explained Rins.
“He lost sight of the braking point and crossed the track from the right to the left so aggressively that he lost the front and crashed.
“It’s clearly his fault but it’s also that of the stewards in the decision they take to not do anything about this action makes no sense in my opinion.
“I don’t think they deserve to be here in this championship because they don’t listen to us, putting away the incident with Taka in Mugello that some riders think is his fault, some mine but they don’t do nothing.
“It’s not normal the decision.”
Bagnaia – who has now slipped to 66 points adrift of series leader Fabio Quartararo as a result of his retirement as the Yamaha rider won the Catalan GP – concurred with Rins that a lack of a penalty for Nakagami “is very strange.”
The Italian also added that he felt Nakagami’s aggressive opening turn move – which he thankfully walked away from despite smashing his head on Bagnaia’s still rotating rear wheel – was “irresponsible”, and that mistakes of this magnitude “cannot happen” given the two-time Moto2 race winner’s experience level.
“First of all I heard that Taka (Nakagami) is OK and there’s no problem with him so I’m glad baout this news, but I also want to say that I think we are professional riders and we’ve done this plenty of times,” said Bagnaia.
“It’s been a lot of years that Taka has been riding and I think that these mistakes cannot happen, on the first lap and the first braking zone you cannot overtake 12 riders in one go and it was really irresponsible.
“If I was not there for sure he was going to the gravel and his race was finished, so race direction for sure have to think on that and no further action is very strange to know.”
