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Vinales criticises Lorenzo for making "rookie mistakes"

Maverick Vinales criticised Jorge Lorenzo for causing a four-bike crash in MotoGP's Catalan GP, saying the Honda rider tends to make "rookie mistakes" and that he was needlessly aggressive.

Jorge Lorenzo, Repsol Honda Team breaking

Jorge Lorenzo, Repsol Honda Team breaking

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Running fourth less than two laps into MotoGP's Catalan GP, Lorenzo was looking set for the best race of his Honda tenure so far - only to lose control of his bike at Turn 10, and collect Vinales, Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi.

Vinales, who received the biggest hit of the four but walked away uninjured, said that Lorenzo didn't need to make an overtaking attempt at Turn 10 as he should have just waited until main straight due to Yamaha's notorious top speed deficit.

"I saw him on the inside I tried to avoid the crash but I think one bike touch my rear tyre and I just fly. I try to avoid the clash but was impossible," said Vinales.

"Honestly, this corner is always difficult but come on, you are fourth in the first lap, you can overtake me in straight, we are slow.

"You only need to wait for four corners to overtake me. Also in the warm-up lap [on the] inside he overtake without a reason, I didn't understand.

"Also in Mugello he had some problems with [Jack] Miller on the warm-up lap. I don't know, sometimes, if you ask me, looks like a rookie mistake and he is five-time world champion. Sometimes we have to think on the bike.

"Even if he is a great rider, he has a lot of talent but come on, you can't win the race in two laps."

Vinales hopes that Lorenzo will be relegated to the back of the grid in the following Assen race as a penalty.

He added that it was a particularly poor incident as he "destroyed" Dovizioso's championship.

"Last on the grid, he took out four riders. If he [only] took out somehow myself or Valentino, we are not fighting for the championship, it is a race incident but okay, is not so bad.

"But he took out also Andrea that is fighting for the championship so today he destroyed my, Valentino's race and Dovizioso's championship a little bit because it is pretty hard to recover 25 points. I hope the race direction is severe as they were with me yesterday."

Rossi refused to also call for a penalty for Lorenzo, but said that it was a "great shame" to lose out on a potential podium finish.

"Today I feel very good, I arrive from a good weekend. I was behind [Danilo] Petrucci and I was a bit faster than him," Rossi said.

"I want to try to overtake but I overtake in the wrong moment because I arrive fast to Turn 10 and after I see the crash in front and unfortunately I cannot avoid the bike of Jorge.

"I try to not crash but the bike come below my tyres and at the end I also crash. I have also a little bit of pain in the ankle because my foot remain between the two bikes.

"About the penalty, the race direction will decide. I don't have to say nothing."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont

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