This weekend’s Grand Prix of Thailand saw numerous crashes and plenty of drama unfold, but one of the main incidents happened right at the start, with contact between Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo, leading to Quartararo’s crash.

After remounting his Yamaha M1, Quartararo finished 16th, while Morbidelli also crashed at the same corner where he made contact with Quartararo. This incident resulted in a long-lap penalty for Morbidelli’s reckless riding.

Quartararo described Morbidelli’s move at turn 8 as a “suicide attack,” marking the second incident in two days that impacted his race at the same corner; the first was when Brad Binder forced him onto the exit curb during Saturday’s Sprint.

“Turn eight... I don’t know what I did to this corner, but two times in a row, two people kick me out of the race,” Quartararo commented. “Yesterday was more of an aggressive move, but today was more of a suicide attack. But that’s racing. Unfortunately, we can’t control other riders’ moves.”

Quartararo hadn’t reviewed the incident with Morbidelli when he spoke to the media but expressed confusion about Morbidelli’s apparent urgency to pass him.

“I didn’t see the move [with Morbidelli],” Quartararo said. “But the speed he reached me at in turn eight—it felt like he was too far back in braking and just released it.”

“He was really fast this morning—he could have waited and overtaken me at turn three. There were still 20 laps to go, so a few more corners wouldn’t have kept him from aiming for a podium or the win. I don’t have much else to say about it.”

However, Morbidelli viewed the incident differently. He explained that Quartararo braked earlier than expected, and he dived inside to avoid him.

“It was a real shame,” Morbidelli said. “I was trying to make up positions and recover as quickly as possible.”

“With Fabio, I made an error. I wasn’t really trying to overtake him, but he braked earlier than I expected, and I thought, ‘Okay, I have to go for it and hope he sees me.’ But he didn’t, and we collided. He went down, and that set off a downward spiral for my own race.”

After serving the long-lap penalty, Morbidelli’s attempt to recover ended in another crash at turn 8. “It was really slippery in that corner today,” he added.

Reflecting on his weekend, Morbidelli noted that his mistakes were costly despite his competitive speed.

“We were quick all weekend, but in key moments I made mistakes,” he said. “Yesterday in qualifying, I could have been on the front row, but a crash in turn nine meant I started 11th. Today, I was rushing to recover, which led to more mistakes. We’ll learn from this, bring the same speed, and focus on accuracy at crucial points.”