In MotoGP, it is common to see situations where riders try to catch a tow from rivals by following their slipstream, slowing down, and sometimes creating potentially dangerous situations. Francesco Bagnaia, who was pursued by Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) during qualifying for the British GP this Saturday, believes these cases harm the image of MotoGP and are dangerous, requiring strong rules and penalties.

Asked about possible solutions, the Italian replied: ‘Thinking more about the important things – not us, the stewards need to be more focused on the important things and less focused on things that doesn’t matter’.

Then, Bagnaia said: ‘For me, what we saw today, what we saw in the last four or five qualifyings, is ridiculous. We are at the top of our sport, we are the fastest riders in the world. We are here because we can do things alone. Our speed is great alone. So I don’t understand why some riders need to tow: for what, one tenth, two tenths? It’s better to be alone, to be more focused on the performance and not thinking «Okay, I will follow him, I will follow him». Because this kind of things removes your focus on the performance. Being alone is much easier, is much better to the performance. For example, today I decided to slow a bit and I entered for the last attempt 30 seconds after the last rider entered, and at turn 4 I was overtaking them. I think it’s quite ridiculous – not just for me, for what the riders that are watching, for the people that are watching. Today, the Moto3 riders with four minutes to go six riders have done the lap time, because a tow is more important than… I don’t know. And right now they can do it because they have us as an example’.