Spies: "Haga and Rea crash was a 50/50"

After witnessing Noriyuki Haga and Jonathan Rea’s clash, which resulted in Haga retiring from race two crash at Nurburgring, Ben Spies believes that both Haga and Rea are equally to blame.

Having closed to within two points of the championship lead in race one, Spies took control of the title race for the first time after finishing second in race two, while his title rival, Haga was left watching from the side of the track.

Speaking to MCN, Spies said:

“For me it was one of those things and it was a racing incident. I didn’t see the incident up close, but from what I heard I think it was a down to both of them.

It wasn’t like when Michel (Fabrizio) came in a completely fire bombed me at Brno. I think Nori got in there a little bit hot and turned back in and they touched. I would say it was a 50/50.

“I ran wide a couple of times there with Haga right behind me in race one. Because Haga likes to ride so close I just took a quick glance before I pulled it back just to make sure his front wheel wasn’t there. It’s a case of being safe.”