Triple Impact
Dovizioso attacks Lorenzo and Pedrosa after ‘going home with zero points’
Terrifying three-way crash in Jerez could have critical effect on championship
‘Jorge and Dani madea mistake’
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO
The 2018 MotoGP championship was thrown into disarray at the Spanish Grand Prix when a racing incident between Andrea Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa saw all three factory riders crash out while battling for the podium.
Fighting for second place as Marc Marquez pulled away at the front, Lorenzo’s choice of soft front tyre meant that the five-time champion was visibly holding up his teammate Dovizioso. The frustrated Italian was forced into a series of do-or-die moves that eventually caused both him and Lorenzo to run wide. Over-correcting his error, Lorenzo then cut back across onto the racing line and rode straight into the path of Pedrosa, the contact with the Repsol Honda rider then ended with all three riders hitting the deck.
None of the riders accepted any blame for the mass coming together. Dovizioso, who had been leading the championship going into the race, said: “If you crash then someone has made a mistake, and for sure Jorge and Dani made mistakes. Dani was the third rider, and when you’re behind you can manage the situation ahead of you. He took a normal line through the corner, but he did it much faster than normal. On the other hand, Jorge didn’t check and didn’t care about the rider behind him either and he cut the line trying to exit the corner as quickly as possible. “In the end, nothing bad happened and no-one has to be penalised, but I’m still going home with zero points when I should be going home with 20.”
Until the moment disaster struck, Dovizioso had been happy: “To start from behind and make up places here at Jerez, lapping almost at the same pace as Marquez who then won the race, is truly a great satisfaction.”
Pedrosa, who was already riding injured following his broken wrist a month ago, attacked race control. “It wasn’t something that happened because we wanted it to or because we were riding in a certain way. I never got close to them so I was waiting for a mistake and when they made it I went for it. I didn’t go any faster, but they were a lot slower.
“Jorge wanted to recover his position after Dovi passed him, but when I started turning I was off the right side of my bike and couldn’t see anything happening on my left. “I went to race control after the race barely able to walk and Mike Webb didn’t even want to join the meeting to talk about it. I’m disappointed that they give the responsibility to the riders to make complaints. Sometimes they don’t face what happens on track at all.” Only Lorenzo remained out of the tit-for-tat exchanges, with the normally fiery Spaniard instead letting his rivals swing at him and each other while doing his best to stay out of the row.
“The images are clear, but I don’t want to speak too much about what happened or to say it’s one person’s fault or the other. We’re three of the cleanest riders in the championship and it was just unlucky for all three of us that we finished on the ground. It’s very strange that any of us are involved in this type of accident never mind all three of us!”