He didn’t stop accelerating until he threw me off

Francesco Bagnaia has lashed out at Alex Marquez for their collision in the Aragon Grand Prix, claiming the Gresini MotoGP rider “didn’t stop accelerating until he threw me off”.

Marc Marquez’s victory dominated the headlines in Spain on Sunday, but the fallout between his younger brother Alex and Bagnaia was also a major talking point after the race.

Alex Marquez collided with the factory Ducati rider with six laps to go when they were fighting for the last podium place, with contact at Turn 13 sending both of them out of the race.

Bagnaia was trapped under the Gresini Ducati GP23 as they slid off the track, before he was finally released when the bike flew over him in the gravel.

The crash left left him with a sore neck from the impact but miraculously neither suffered any serious injuries.

After the incident, Bagnaia and Marquez were summoned separately to the Race Direction office and, after presenting their views, both were cleared of any wrongdoing.

But, in his post-race interview, Bagnaia put the blame firmly on Marquez, describing the Spaniard’s actions as “dangerous”.

He said: “It’s not that I have to explain a lot of things. The dynamic is what it is. It’s worrying that there are riders who do certain things. When I was on the inside I felt a hit of gas, and he didn’t stop accelerating until he threw me off.

“The worst of all, what makes me most angry is the data. The telemetry reveals that, after the contact, [Marquez] went from accelerating 40% to 60%. It’s dangerous to race with someone who does these things.

“Normally, one tries to avoid contact, although the data shows that there are people who do not see it that way.”

The collision was particularly costly for Bagnaia in the context of the championship battle as he lost further ground to title rival Jorge Martin, with the Pramac rider going on to finish second to increase his advantage to 23 points.

Marquez, on his part, argued that he could not see Bagnaia from his position after the latter had passed him for third.

He believes that the onus was on his rival to avoid a collision.

“Nothing is going to change what happened,” said the 28-year-old. “If anyone could avoid contact it was him, who knew I was there. I had no knowledge that [Bagnaia] was on the outside.

“The only thing I told the Race Direction members is that, if he had left a…