Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

Pedrosa caused crash, Lorenzo also at fault - Dovizioso

Andrea Dovizioso said both Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo were to blame - with the former being the main culprit - for the crash that led to all three of them retiring from MotoGP's Spanish Grand Prix.

Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

With the race reaching its conclusion, Lorenzo was keeping Dovizioso and Pedrosa at bay for second when the Italian made a move on his teammate at Turn 6.

Both Ducati riders went wide and as Lorenzo tried to cut back to retake the position, he made contact with Pedrosa, who tried to sneak past both his rivals.

That led to collision between the two, with Lorenzo's out-of-control bike also hitting Dovizioso.

Dovizioso reckons Pedrosa made "the biggest mistake" as he was the one with a view of the two riders ahead.

"I think the biggest mistake comes from Dani, because he was behind us," said Dovizioso.

"He entered a bit faster than his normal way. If you enter faster than normal and somebody is in front of you, because we were in front of Dani, we decide the line.

"But Dani is behind, and he is able to manage the situation and he just cut inside, faster than every lap.

"And created a crash. For sure he did a mistake."

However, Pedrosa said he did not take the corner faster than usual, and the speed difference came from the Ducati riders slowing down too much because they went wide.

He said: "No, I was not faster, otherwise I couldn't keep my line.

"I did my normal line. They went slower because they were outside."

Dovizioso added that Lorenzo was also at fault: "But in another side Jorge didn't check, didn't care about the rider behind him.

"And he cut a little bit too fast the line to try to exit as fast as he can.

"It's a mix of a mistake [between Pedrosa and Lorenzo]. For sure both Dani and Jorge did a mistake."

None of the three riders were penalised for the incident, and Dovizioso supported that decision, saying a sanction would have been "too much".

"After Argentina, they say they will be more restrictive, but at the end I think it's too much to penalise what happened today.

"I mean, is always difficult to take the right decision about that, because what happened from that two riders is not over the limit, so [to] penalise Jorge and Dani is not good.

"But at the end I didn't make a mistake and I come home with zero [points]. So [it] is always difficult to take the right decision, to say 'okay, they have to be penalised' or not.

"At the end I think it's better not. But depending which way you want to see that."

After failing to finish the race, Dovizioso dropped from first to fifth in the standings, and is now 24 points behind championship leader Marc Marquez.

Additional reporting by Lena Buffa and German Garcia Casanova

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Jerez crash involved MotoGP's "three cleanest riders"
Next article Jerez MotoGP: Top photos from the race

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia