MotoGP: Iannone ‘could do nothing to avoid’ Lorenzo

An unrepentant Andrea Iannone has left Jorge Lorenzo fuming at him after failing to admit that he was responsible for the collision that saw both of the pair fall from yesterday’s Catalan MotoGP race.

Colliding with the reigning champion and until-then title leader on lap 17 of the race, Iannone protested that he did nothing differently, and insisted afterwards that Lorenzo’s problems with tyre life were culpable in the incident.

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“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 analysing the telemetry data.

“After the crash, I asked Jorge if he had a problem with the bike, because it was very strange. I didn’t expect the surprise, and he insisted he didn’t have a problem. He was very nervous and I understand – I’m sorry for him, but I braked at the same point and it’s very hard to understand why he braked so early.”

Iannone will start the next round of the championship from the back of the grid after race control penalised him for the crash, the second time this season he has taken out other riders as he fell.