Jorge Lorenzo unimpressed with Crutchlow after Motegi crash

Cal Crutchlow apologised to Jorge Lorenzo following their collision in Motegi, but the Englishman did not feel he was solely to blame.

Published : Oct 13, 2017 23:58 IST

Jorge Lorenzo (in picture) and Cal Crutchlow spoke to each other after their crash.
Jorge Lorenzo (in picture) and Cal Crutchlow spoke to each other after their crash.
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Jorge Lorenzo (in picture) and Cal Crutchlow spoke to each other after their crash.

Jorge Lorenzo was not impressed with Cal Crutchlow following their crash in practice at the Japanese Grand Prix but the Spaniard was counting his blessings after walking away unscathed.

Both riders ended up in the gravel when Crutchlow lost control on a wet track and collided with the Ducai rider in FP1 at Motegi on Friday.

Read: Talks over Rossi's Yamaha future not expected until June

Honda man Crutchlow and Lorenzo exchanged words as they walked away before the Spaniard made a visit to the medical centre for a check-up. Lorenzo was relieved to avoid doing damage and accepted the Englishman's apology, but felt the incident should not have occurred.

'Lucky'

"I was quite lucky because when Crutchlow's bike hit me and I crashed, I could have been badly hurt," he said. "I was slowing down a little bit, I looked behind and saw Cal about three seconds behind me. I wanted to not go too fast but keep the speed up.

"He came suddenly and completely lost control of the bike. For being the first free practice that risk wasn't worth it. So we exchanged opinions a bit, he didn't apologise at that point and said it was my fault – but he was good two hours later and came to my office to say sorry.

"It's okay, it can happen. There are some riders that make these mistakes a little more often but this can happen, and the important thing is that he understood it was his mistake and said sorry."

No agreement

Crutchlow offered a different version of events. He said: "I don't think we're going to agree on what happened in the incident. I'm sorry for him and the main thing is we're both okay. Sure, I look the villain because I hit him but he was going really slow on the racing line and because I was coming on him so fast, I had to brake more or I was going to hit him…then when I braked more on the water I crashed and hit him.

"We don't agree on the incident but I'm glad he's okay and this is racing. Sometimes you get knocked off, but for sure I didn't mean to do it."

Andrea Dovizioso pipped Marc Marquez with a lap of one minute 54.877 seconds in FP2 after the championship leader was quickest in FP1.

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