Aleix Espargaro: ‘I don’t know what Marc Marquez is doing’

Earlier in the afternoon session, a slow-moving Marquez had upset Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro and rookie Remy Gardner into the last corner of the Jerez track.

“I was behind somebody that wanted to slow down to go into the box, then when I knew Pol and [Remy] were coming behind me, I tried to stay out of the line but there was some confusion,” Marquez said.

Marquez went on to suffer a double fall during the middle stages, before ending the session in 19th place and with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro giving him a visual 'hurry up' to stop following.

• Spanish MotoGP, Jerez - Free Practice (2) Results
• Quartararo fastest in FP2 as Marquez crashes twice in the same lap
• Spanish MotoGP, Jerez - Free Practice (1) Results

“It looks like I’m always crying about this, but it’s unbelievable. I don’t know what this guy is doing,” Espargaro said. “Everybody saw it. My brother almost crashed in T13. Then Gardner. Then Oliveira [when Marquez was returning to the pits after his first fall, and fell again].

“Then with me. I went out on track and there was nobody in pitlane. I went onto the back straight and there was nobody there. And he was stopping in the middle of the back straight, waiting for me for one minute. Unbelievable!

“I say ‘go, go, go’. And he doesn’t care. He looks behind. It’s just unbelievable. I will not blame him, but I will blame the people in Race Direction. He can do whatever he wants and no one says anything to him.

“People all the time say, ‘Moto3, Moto3, Moto3’ [has a problem with slow riding]. MotoGP is worse! What are they doing?”

Marc Marquez: ‘This is normal for Aleix’

Marc Marquez shrugged off the incident, insisting riders chasing a tow from faster competitors is part of racing and that he has been the target many times in the past.

“This is normal with Aleix. This is motorcycling. Aleix always complains. If this year he is fast then he needs to be proud we are looking for his slipstream!” Marquez said. “Normally it was always the opposite.

“This year I am looking for his slipstream because he is third in the championship, he is riding very good and MotoGP is like this. You are looking for the fast riders to make the lap. In this case I was just finishing the practice because I was riding with a bike I don’t like and I didn’t try to follow anybody.”

Distracted by the incident, Espargaro slipped from fourth in the morning session to 13th place in the afternoon.

“For sure 13th is not good. but I had a couple of problems with the soft tyre, traffic and also chattering,” Espargaro said. “I couldn’t set a fast lap time. But I’m not worried. I’ve been very fast with the medium rear, the race tyre. I was leading the session for a long time. So no problem, no stress.

“Also here in Jerez the fast lap times will come tomorrow morning in FP3. Let’s see.”

Espargaro and Marquez join the likes of Johann Zarco and Joan Mir in being outside the current top ten for direct access to Qualifying 2.