TROUBLE appears to be following Marco Simoncelli as he found himself at the heart of another controversial MotoGP crash, this time involving championship contender and vocal critic Jorge Lorenzo.
Arguably cold tyres are a joint culprit for the resulting highside that collected Lorenzo in the first left-hander on the Assen circuit. The crash occured after Simoncelli made a clean dive to take the second position from the factory Yamaha rider, however coming on the gas the hairy Italian was flung out of the seat as Lorenzo became an innocent victim and colliding with the Gresini Honda.
Both riders rejoined the field, Lorenzo, a candidate for the ride of the weekend, angrily fought his way from the back of the field and overcoming huge gaps to cross the flag in sixth position. Likewise Simoncelli, with a ragged Honda RC212V, was able to bump-start the bike and make his own way through the riders to finish eighth.
In what was a weekend to forget for the pole-sitter of the Dutch TT, Marco admitted that he was completely responsible for the crash and was apologetic to the reigning champion: “In this race you can’t put it all down to bad luck, but the truth is that I was very naive."
From his perspective, "It was the first left hander, the asphalt was cold and, although I don’t think that I went in too hard to get past Lorenzo, I felt that I couldn’t hold back because I was third and close to the front two. There was time though, and I could have waited. I am unhappy to have caught Lorenzo up in my crash and can only apologise to him.
"The only consolation, small as it is, is that I was able to pick the bike up and finish the race and put down some good times –despite having parts and pegs missing from the bike and the back of my helmet digging in. It is another bad experience for me and I am going to try and bear it in mind, without losing focus and motivation.” finished 'Super-Sic'.
Lorenzo delievered an inspiring performance cutting through the pack, although falling further behind Casey Stoner in standings he said: “Of course Simoncelli doesn’t want to throw me off the track, that wasn’t his intention but I think he is not very conscious about the risks in this class with these tyres.
"I thought he learnt from the past and the polemic he created with Dani but it’s clear he hasn’t learnt. The good thing is that we finished in sixth and took some points. I was fast with a good pace. The championship is now more difficult so we have to go all out to win races and go fast."
