Nakagami: Marquez ‘not at fault’ for Aragon crash, ‘impossible’ to avoid

Like Jack Miller who defended Marc Marquez after the eight-time world champion was the cause of two separate lap one accidents in Aragon, Takaaki Nakagami has also defended the Spaniard by calling their coming-together an ‘unlucky incident’.

Robert Jones

22 Sep 2022

Nakagami, who will be re-evaluated after Friday’s FP1 at the Japanese MotoGP due to suffering a severe hand injury in the clash with Marquez, is set to take part in his first home race in three years following the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the earlier contact between Marquez and Fabio Quartararo - resulted in the reigning world champion crashing out - was down to Marquez shutting the throttle in order to avoid a highside, the second clash with Nakagami, which Marquez also called a ‘very unlucky’ incident for his fellow Honda rider, was as a result of his RC213V having an issue after the holeshot device was activated as debris was stuck in the rear of his bike.

Although Miller allocated some of the blame for Marquez and Nakagami’s clash in the direction of the Japanese rider, the LCR Honda man was in agreement that Marquez could have done nothing about swerving to his left and ultimately clipping his front tyre.

"Well, it’s really difficult and I tried to overtake Marc under braking at turn seven but I slightly lost the line and he tried to do the overtake again at the exit of turn seven," said Nakagami.

"He was clearly in front of me but then it looks like when he activated the device the bike went to the left. It was such a short time and I tried to abort out of the contact but it was quite impossible.

"At that moment I realised it was not Marc, it was totally not Marc’s fault. It was an unlucky accident and 0% I never got angry at him.

"It was unlucky and I got the injury, but this is life and it could be worse because I hit him twice and the first one I was already out of control.

"When I was going right I was trying to stay on the bike but I was already 100% throttle. I was lucky because the second [impact] I was already crashing and on the floor and saw that all the riders behind were avoiding to crash."

Following the Aragon MotoGP which was won by Enea Bastianini, Nakagami had immediate surgery on his right hand in a bid to fit for his home round.

Asked about his injury, Nakagami added: "To be honest, my hand is not the best feeling. On Monday I had a surgery in Barcelona and it’s quite impossible in such a short amount of time to recover 100%.

"After the race I understood that my hand is pretty bad and I was expecting that it was going to be a very tough home race this weekend.

"But, to be honest, at least I got the green light for FP1 but I have to re-check after FP1 and we will decide whether to keep going or if I have to stop. It’s very difficult."