Beatriz Neila on Maria Herrera: “Why is she doing that? It’s dangerous!”

Beatriz Neila has just experienced the most emotional weekend of her life in sporting terms. The 24-year-old arrived in central England for the penultimate round of the Women’s World Championship trailing Maria Herrera by 24 points. When she was taken out by Herrera in the first race at Donington Park – and the world champion won comfortably despite receiving a double long-lap penalty – her deficit in the overall standings jumped to 49 points in one fell swoop.

Neila was devastated and shaken by fits of crying; it took a great deal of comfort and a long time for her to calm down again. In the second race on Sunday, Herrera crossed the finish line first and would have been crowned world champion. For Neila, this was yet another shock, but then came a sudden turnaround: Herrera received a 6-second penalty for causing Paola Ramos to crash, and Neila, who had finished second, was declared the winner. This means she trails by 44 points ahead of the final two races in Jerez in mid-October and her title hopes are now purely theoretical. But at least the decision has been postponed until the finale; there are still 50 points up for grabs.

Social media was in a right state

With a bit of hindsight, Neila can see more clearly what happened last weekend. “Saturday was a difficult day; social media was going wild – it was awful,” she said. “The World Championship is wide open again now, but there are too many points between us. I’m not giving up, though, and I’ll be working hard over the summer. I’ll try not to think too much about the championship and instead go to Jerez and enjoy the people there and the final races of the season.”

For Neila, there’s no question that Herrera was to blame for the crashes – the FIM stewards saw it the same way. “I was riding my line; she changed hers,” she said, describing her crash on Saturday. “And that was on the first lap. I asked myself several times why she did that. On Sunday, it was the same. I was right behind them and saw Maria go into the corner and make contact with Paola. Again, I asked myself, why? Yet there are people who think it was my fault and Paola’s – but that’s not the case. I waited all day for her to come over to me and apologise, or at least ask how I was. My leg was hurting. It’s just bruises, but I could easily have broken something. Maria’s family and her team came over to me and asked if there was anything they could do to help. But from her – nothing. That’s not human. We’re rivals, but off the track we’re human beings.”

Was Herrera’s penalty on Sunday too lenient?

Herrera received a penalty in both races for the same offence. “She does it again and again,” Neila noted. “The penalty on Sunday is fine by me in itself, but that was the second time in a race over the weekend. Perhaps Sunday’s penalty could have been more severe – for example, starting from the back of the grid in the next race. What she’s doing is dangerous. Now I’m worried it’ll happen again at Jerez. With a crash like that, anything can happen.”

Neila emphasised that she wasn’t seeking a rivalry with Herrera that went beyond what happened on the track. “I treat everyone the same,” Bea emphasised. “If she says hello to me, I say hello to her. If she asks me how I am, I’ll ask her how she, her family and her dog are. That’s just the way I am; I don’t want us to be enemies. I’m very sensitive; it’ll take days for me to recover from this weekend. On Monday I asked myself the same questions, and I’ll probably do so again next Monday.”