Pramac Ducati MotoGP rider Jack Miller has revealed Aleix Espargaro confronted him after their collision in the Spanish Grand Prix, saying the Spaniard told him he deserved to crash.
Aprilia rider Espargaro and Miller were fighting for 10th place with three laps remaining when Espargaro made a move at the final corner.
Miller wanted to instantly retake the position and tried to sneak past Espargaro exiting the corner, but they ended up colliding – resulting in the Ducati rider crashing out.
Espargaro, who finished 11th, said after the race he was “very angry” with Miller’s move, which he felt cost him a chance of fighting for a top-10 finish.
While Miller said Espargaro’s comments did not annoy him, he revealed they argued on a plane leaving Jerez, with Espargaro asking for an apology.
“[It] doesn’t bother me how he felt about it, he was also extremely rude on the plane flying home, saying things like I deserved to crash,” said Miller.
“It is unnecessary, he said I needed to come and apologise to him, I said it was a racing incident.
“He said he was on the inside. He wasn’t, when you look back at the pictures, he ran wide and all I did was try to follow my line around and I’m gonna go for a gap, I’m a racer.
“I crashed, he was expecting an apology. An apology for what?
“I did not really feel that necessary, when I said to him that I was the one who crashed, he said to me quite clearly, ‘You deserved to crash’.
“That is the way he feels, it is great to see we have a good sportsman like that in the paddock.”
Espargaro said his tyre was cut in the incident and felt he was lucky to be able to finish, and reiterated that he expected Miller to apologise afterwards.
“There was no space, I’ve seen it now many times,” said Espargaro.
“He cut my tyre with the winglet and I was very lucky that the tyre did not explode.
“When Michelin saw it, they came by the garage and they didn’t understand how I finished the race with the cut.
“I was very angry, as I have good relationship with him, I was expecting that he can – not after the race, but two hours later or on Monday – say, ‘Hey mate, sorry, I thought [there] was space’.
“He didn’t do anything and when I saw him on the plane I said, ‘what happened mate?’ [He said] ‘What happened? I crashed’, and I said, ‘yeah, there was no space, you crashed, but because you deserved to crash’.”
He added that Miller deserved a penalty – one the Australia may have received had Espargaro ended up falling or getting injured in the clash.
“What makes me super-angry is that the penalty, it has to be for the action, not for the consequence,” added Espargaro.
“If I crash and I broke my collarbone, Jack has a big penalty, I am fully confident of this.”