Raúl Fernández after sprint crash with Bezzecchi: “That makes me furious!”

Trackhouse rider Raúl Fernández was considered the favourite to win the MotoGP Sprint in Indonesia, but instead the race ended at Turn 1. Following the collision, he has levelled serious accusations against Marco Bezzecchi.

Bernhard M. Höhne

MotoGP

10.10.2026 - 13:32

This article is an automatically generated English version. The Original Article was published in German.

Sturz: Raul Fernandez und Marco Bezzecchi kollidierten
© Gold and Goose

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Raúl Fernández

Marco Bezzecchi

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Having already set the fastest lap in record time on Friday, it was clear that Raul Fernández would be in contention amongst the front-runners at the MotoGP race weekend in Indonesia. The Aprilia RS-GP is considered to be perfectly suited to the Mandalika International Street Circuit, and the Aprilia factory riders Bezzecchi and Martin confirmed this impression in all sessions on Friday and Saturday.

In qualifying, the Trackhouse rider secured pole position, but his Saturday race was over before he’d even reached the first corner: The rider with number 25 had lost a few metres at the start and had to enter the first corner from the outside, just behind Marco Bezzecchi, Marc Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio. As Bezzecchi was subsequently forced to take a different line, the Italian crossed in front of Raúl Fernández, dragging him off the track after just a few metres.

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Raúl Fernández

Marco Bezzecchi

This was reason enough for Fernández to level strong accusations at his team-mate during the post-race press conference: “We riders put our bodies on the line at speeds of over 300 km/h, and we all know that mistakes can happen – even to me. But when you decide to push another rider off the track, that makes me furious.” The 25-year-old described the situation from his perspective: “The crash stemmed from the start: I tried to keep my motorbike in the middle of the track at the start so as not to open the door for other riders coming up from behind to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre. Marco got off to a very good start, put his motorbike in front of me and tried to force me outwards.”

The former Moto2 World Championship runner-up went on to make it clear that the accusation of intent was well-considered: “Marco Bezzecchi chose the ideal line that you’d take if you were on your own on this track, but he wasn’t alone! We riders must respect one another, but he has no respect. Before the start, Aprilia had made it clear to us that we should behave in a gentlemanly manner towards one another.” Aprilia Racing was aware that they had an advantage over the competition on the Lombok circuit and had forbidden their own riders from engaging in unnecessary skirmishes amongst themselves.

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Raul Fernandez: Wütend und mit ramponiertem Finger
© Gold and Goose

For Fernandez, it was clear that the crash involving the two rivals would primarily help the competition from Bologna: “If Marcos’s strategy opened the door to victory for Ducati, then it wasn’t a good strategy. I’m no longer in the running for the World Championship, but he can still get involved in the battle. That wasn’t a smart move on his part.” Nevertheless, the rider currently seventh in the World Championship is also aware that race control cannot take action against Marco Bezzecchi: “You don’t deserve a penalty for something like that; it wouldn’t be fair.” For Fernandez, however, the Indonesian Grand Prix may have come to an abrupt end: “Perhaps that has ruined our whole weekend. I’ll give it a go in the warm-up on Sunday morning, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to race in the Grand Prix.”

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