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Jorge Lorenzo has hit out at MotoGP rival Marc Marquez for “destroying” his race and causing the foot injury he sustained in his first-corner crash at Aragon.
Lorenzo started the Aragon race from pole and was ahead entering the Turn 1 left-hander on the outside line, before Marquez dived down the inside for the lead.
Marquez, the eventual race winner, ran wide in making the move and bogged down on corner exit, immediately surrendering the lead to Andrea Dovizioso while Lorenzo highsided off his Ducati in his tow.
Lorenzo suffered a dislocated toe and a subcapital fracture of the second metatarsal on his right foot, and is not certain he will be fit for Thailand.
“From the outside, [it looked like] I entered too fast, leaned too much and entered too wide on the dirty part, that’s why I crashed,” Lorenzo said.
“From what I experienced, I enter on the normal line, as I did the last seven years, but I watched Marc go into the inside, very aggressively – not making the corner because you saw where he finished, in the green [paint on the outside].
“When he saw I was there, he tried not to let me pass into the corner, and I didn’t have any option [but] to go to the dirty part.
“Because we were very wide and the other riders were already coming, if I didn’t want to lose five or six positions, I had to open the throttle.
“In Misano the crash was completely my fault, this time Marc destroyed my race, destroyed my foot, destroyed also the big possibility I had to win and probably also [my] Thailand race.”
Lorenzo said he felt more “upset” when the start was replayed, as he believes it made his crash look like an unforced error.
“It’s not like that,” he added. “And Marc knows.
“He didn’t leave me space, he made another block pass, like in the past in some races.
“I didn’t have any options [other] than crashing – crash or go outside the track.
“He didn’t want me to enter the corner and he didn’t care about me. Just make the corner, brake very late, and just don’t think about the exit of the corner, just entry. And forget about my line.”
Marquez compared the incident to his late-race run-in with Dovizioso, who ran him wide with an aggressive dive down the inside at Turn 14.
“I haven’t seen the crash, and didn’t see the board saying ‘Lorenzo out’,” said Marquez.
“In the first turn I came in quite fast and sliding, I went wide, it was very similar to another moment with Dovizioso where we touched and I went on the green [paint].
“That’s the danger of this track. If you go on the dirty part, it’s easy to crash.
“It’s a racing incident, but when you go on the dirty part of the track amid all the adrenaline of the start, you have to be calm not open the throttle [too early].”