Pedrosa ‘disappointed’ in Race Direction after fall

Dani Pedrosa has expressed disappointment at an interaction with MotoGP Race Direction in the wake of his dramatic exit from the Spanish Grand Prix, as his frustration its viewpoint of today's incident - as well as its reading of his clash with Johann Zarco in Argentina - remain.

The 32-year old turned his frustrations on Race Direction after he spectacularly flew through the air on Sunday, a collision with countryman Jorge Lorenzo taking both Spaniards down, as well as Andrea Dovizioso, who had led the world championship coming into this weekend.

But aside from explaining his views on the three-rider incident, Pedrosa used his dealings with the media to say he was unsure of Race Direction’s thinking in such matters. It was his view that the two Ducati riders were at fault, and stated Race Director Mike Webb had showed him a lack of respect by not meeting with Pedrosa after the race.

Yet Webb told Crash.net he did not refuse to meet with the Repsol Honda rider. Instead he was watching the second of the weekend’s Red Bull Rookies races that followed the 25-lap MotoGP encounter, as is his job.

Pedrosa spoke of the incident, before going on to say, “Well of course I had a big, big crash again and I was lying down and then I see they decide 'race incident' and of course we can see it's a race incident. But I went there to speak to Race Direction because I want to understand them.

“It was a race incident for me in Argentina - it wasn't for Marc with Vale, but Zarco and me, yes. I highside because I pull up the bike. After Zarco's mistake coming into the [corner] I tried to give space, I finally end up in the hospital and this time - OK Lorenzo maybe don't see me, don't look or didn't expect me there or whatever – but he didn't pick up the bike and 'boom!' we ended up crashing. And I highside again. And again 'race incident'.

“So I go there to understand what is the point and how they judge things because from my point of view, it wasn't just that easy. At the end you have many other riders watching the incident, many other riders in Moto3 and Moto2 taking example of us, and this was a triple accident! Which I was never involved before.

“I ask them, 'How do you judge this?' because I don’t understand. And then we start asking, ‘OK so I was on the inside, I was on the correct line on the track yes? They were on the outside and coming back from a mistake so they were re-joining the correct line on the track, yes?

“'So, when you are in the right line who has the preference, the guy who is inside or the guy who is outside?' The guy who is inside. OK, so then whose fault [was it]? 'Well we already took our decision.’

“So finally they said if you don't agree with our decision, which I don't, make an appeal. But this meant I would say that I want Jorge to be penalised, because I don't agree with the decision. But what I want them to understand is that I don't want a penalty for Jorge, I want them to understand correctly what is happening on the track because they don’t.

“Firstly and most importantly it's because sometimes they don’t face the things. I came there, I could barely walk, and I went there walking and Mr Mike Webb didn't even want to join the meeting and he was next door. So I deserve a little bit more respect than this.”

So Pedrosa felt angry? “No, I'm not angry but I'm disappointed that they give the responsibility to the riders because if I would appeal and I would go against Jorge, then it looks like I go against Jorge. But no, I'm going against their decision. Which is different.”

Webb responded to Pedrosa’s claims that he had not met with him, telling Crash.net, “We were running a race. The FIM MotoGP stewards are in charge of sanctions and penalties. While I’m one member of the three-member panel, two members…

“The next [race] was still on, which is rookies, but I’m still responsible. So they came and I said to our stewards, could you please go and speak to them and call me if there’s going to be a formal hearing or whatever. But the stewards informed me it was an informal meeting. So I left them to it. So no, I didn’t refuse to go and see him. I was busy doing other things.

“I’m sure I saw someone from the team saying, what’s going on? Then we told them we deemed it a race incident. Dani’s a rider that rides exceptionally well from our point of view. He doesn’t cause problems. He’s great from that point of view. He’s a great sportsman. Super fair.”

Explaining Race Direction’s decision to not punish any of the riders involved in the spill after investigating the incident, Webb said it was more “a set of circumstances” rather than anyone of the three riding with reckless intent. There were similarities, he felt, with Marc Marquez’s collision with Pol Espargaro in the 2011 Moto2 Grand Prix of Barcelona, too.

“You could possibly apportion some blame on Lorenzo, and possibly some on Pedrosa," said Webb. "Lorenzo was ahead, but he’s coming in on a strange line. Pedrosa has seen a gap and gone for it, and then there’s not a gap. And he was behind.

“So where do you apportion the blame? Given all the circumstances, where they ended up on the track and what unfolded, I don’t think any of the riders made ridiculous maneuvers that had zero chance of coming off. There were riders that ended up on the same piece of tarmac by the circumstances they were put in.

“Dani saw a gap and had a go and it was no longer there. There’ll be parallels drawn to all sorts of things. A very similar incident years ago [2012] in Barcelona with [Marc] Marquez and [Pol] Espargaro, with a rider running wide and then coming back on track. I wasn’t Race Director at the time, but I remember it was penalised, and I remember also that the penalty was overturned by the FIM saying, that’s not a fair penalty. The rider was ahead.

“So I’m not saying that’s what we based it on. Again, I’ll say every incident is different and we have to consider them all on their own. But taking the whole set of circumstances, track positions and what was going on at the time, the reason it’s just a race incident is because two riders ended up contacting, causing a major incident, but not with any intent to do something wrong.

“It was a set of circumstances. Dani tried to pass. He had a legitimate big gap waiting for him to go past. He had a go at it. The gap was no longer there by the time he got close to the other bike. That was because the other bike was coming in at a strange angle, because he’d ran wide, and been forced wide, in fact.”

On Pedrosa’s continued annoyance at Race Direction’s decision not to punish Zarco after their moment in Argentina, Webb explained, “[It was] The same as Lorenzo and Miller in Texas. There are many times, and unfortunately even more these days, where the racing is so tight in every class that riders end up going for the same piece of track, and it happens a lot.

“There will occasionally be some contact, like scraping if someone’s goes past or whatever. Then there are incidents where another rider blatantly slams into someone either with intent or with recklessness. Not intended to touch, but clearly that pass was never going to make it. And there are various things.

“Dani will disagree to the end of the world with our decision in Argentina, but we felt there was a gap there. Zarco went through it without touching Dani. Dani stood the bike up, as many riders stand the bike up when another rider is underneath, and in that particular circumstance there was wet track outside.”