Franco Morbidelli Denies Deliberately Blocking Pedro Acosta

Franco Morbidelli insists he did not deliberately impede Pedro Acosta during German MotoGP Practice, despite receiving a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

The incident occurred at Turn 7 while Morbidelli was on an out-lap after leaving the pits. The VR46 Ducati rider appeared to check his speed on entry, forcing Acosta to abandon his flying lap.

Morbidelli accepted that his position affected Acosta but rejected the suggestion that he was cruising or failing to pay attention to approaching riders. He said he was riding at full effort, although his pace on an out-lap was still slower than Acosta’s speed on a flying lap.

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“I was doing my job and pushing at 100%. My 100% is slower than Pedro’s. Pedro is unbelievably fast, so my maximum on that out-lap was still slower than him,” Morbidelli said.

He added that his lap data showed he had been pushing from the moment he left the pit lane. According to Morbidelli, the situation was different from a conventional impeding incident in which a rider is cruising or deliberately slowing on the racing line.

The Sachsenring sanction is Morbidelli’s second impeding penalty in consecutive rounds. At the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, he admitted making a mistake when he slowed and affected Enea Bastianini after becoming frustrated with his own lap.

Morbidelli distinguished the Assen incident from the one in Germany because he believed he was riding at full effort this time. However, the stewards’ decision will still drop him three places on the grid, potentially affecting his prospects in the tightly contested run to Turn 1 at the Sachsenring.