Iannone says Lorenzo slowed
While the video footage demonstrates that the closing rate of Andrea Iannone before he cannoned into the back of Jorge Lorenzo was stupendously ridiculous, it did, perhaps, also suggest that Lorenzo might have been a little slower than normal into the turn.
Andrea Iannone in his post race quotes is adamant that Lorenzo was very slow into the turn and claims that telemetry back hims up. Despite that however, race direction have ordered that Iannone start the next MotoGP round at Assen from the back of the grid.
Andrea Iannone – DNF
“I am very sorry for what happened with Lorenzo because I was doing a good race with the limited grip I had. I was riding well and pushing hard, without making any errors, and had even managed to catch Jorge. As for the incident, I can only say that I could do nothing to avoid it: I braked at the same point as all the previous laps but he was very slow at that moment and unfortunately I made contact with him and we both crashed. It might seem that I came in too fast and that I wanted to pass him but that’s not the way it went and we got the confirmation of this by analyzing the telemetry data.”
Jorge Lorenzo
“First of all, as I said yesterday, everything is secondary after what happened on Friday. About the race, it’s unbelievable that Iannone made this mistake again and when he did, instead of saying “sorry” he asked me if I had an engine failure or something strange happening in this corner. I thought it was his fault, but he had this reaction and didn’t say sorry. There is always one rider that doesn’t understand the risks and that his actions can seriously injure the other riders and if Race Direction don’t give him a hard penalisation, like they did with me in 2005, these kinds of riders don’t understand that they have to change their mentality. That’s why I think starting the race from last position is not enough, because in five to seven laps he will be positioned at the front again due to his pace.”
Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“Jorge did a great start and led the race for six laps, until the front tyre dropped and he had to manage the attacks from Pedrosa, Viñales and ultimately Iannone. I believe Iannone has no excuses and, because it’s not the first time he causes such an accident, I expected the Race Direction to be more strict with him, as this incident could seriously compromise Jorge’s chances to fight for the title.”
