MotoGP – Tempers are running hot after Argentina

Bruno Gomes

April 11, 2018

Aleix Espargaró didn’t like Danilo Petrucci agressive riding and started a “war” in social media

It seems that after the Argentina GP everyone exploded and tempers are running hotter than ever in MotoGP, especially in social media, with teams and riders – not to mention fans – making accusations and statements that will only worsen what already is a bad situation.

This time is Aleix Espargaró, the Spanish rider from Gresini Aprilia, and Belgium rookie Xavier Simeon, from Reale Avintia Ducati, who started talking to each other in Twitter, and the answers they gave one another became too aggressive.

Although the incident between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez caught everyone’s attention, at the back of the field there were also riders touching each other during the MotoGP race. Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) was involved in an incident with Aleix Espargaró in the first laps, with the Italian touching Aleix’s Aprilia.

After the race, Aleix Espargaró spoke about Petrucci dangerous riding on track and posted a photo of the moment on his Instagram page, and Pramac Ducati answered just a few hours ago with a statement saying Petrucci isn’t that dangerous and asked for everyone to calm down.

But Espargaró didn’t like the Pramac Ducati words, and soon after, the Spanish rider decided to answer with a message on Twitter: “Hahahahahaha he touched me harder than Marquez! The photo is there, don’t lie to the World. Petrucci always rides like that”.

Pramac Ducati team manager Francesco Guidotti replied to Aleix Espargaró comment on Twitter, and soon after other riders were also involved in the conversation. Scott Redding, Aleix team mate at Aprilia, defended the Spanish remarks on Petrucci, and then Belgium racer Xavier Simeon, who this year rides for Reale Avintia Ducati, also decided to join the discussion and that’s when things got worse.

This is the moment when Petrucci touched Espargaró in the Argentina GP, and this led to all the comments

Simeon wrote in response to Guidotti that “In the end it’s always the same riders that complain, just for media interest, just to show their name. The only one that can complain today is Jack (Miller). He should have won the race with 30 seconds advantage”, a clear message to Aleix Espargaró.

Aleix Espargaró didn’t like to see Simeon talking about this, and also replied to his Tweet: “Many more can complain about things… For example about riders that pay for race when many good ones are home!”, a reference to how Xavier Simeon got his seat on the Reale Avintia Ducati coming from Moto2 last season.

Again, Simeon replied on another Tweet, Aleix Espargaró also replied, and in the end the Belgium rider said this: “I sure of one thing after that… it’s that you are f*****g stupid… And thanks for your attention to me and take time@to answer to my tweets”.

From this moment on, Aleix Espargaró blocked Xavier Simenon from accessing his Twitter account in an attempt to stop the conversation to continue.

Xavier Simeon’s Tweet showing he was blocked by Aleix Espargaró

But the damage is already done, and if we look at what team managers are saying on social media, at what riders are saying in social media, the next MotoGP round in Texas will be interesting to watch… and probably not for good reasons.

Let’s hope that the meeting that will happen before the American round between riders, teams and the Grand Prix Commission, helps to clear the growing tension that we’re seeing at the moment in MotoGP.