San Carlo Honda Gresini boss Fausto Gresini defends Marco Simoncelli – MotoGP news
San Carlo Honda Gresini team boss has defended his rider Marco Simoncelli and said that the criticism he received after colliding with Dani Pedrosa was harsh.
Simoncelli’s rivals have been highly critical of his track manners. Recently the issue was re-addressed by Jorge Lorenzo at the post-race presser following the Estoril round.
The issue reignited in the Grand Prix of France when Simoncelli made a late corner entry trying to pass the Spaniard in lead. The Italian rider ran into the line of Pedrosa and caused him to fall, where he got his right collarbone fractured.
Team Boss Fausto Gresini accepted that Marco Simoncelli was at fault after which he was penalised with a ‘ride through’ penalty. However, he said the amount of criticism for the Italian’s act was not fair in any way.
Gresini said, “I'll make a preamble to get things clear from the start: I'm terribly sorry that Pedrosa, another Honda rider, a contender for the title who was supposed to test the 1000cc, got hurt.”
Gresini was accepting the wrong act by the Italian rider and the penalty given to him, but the criticism was not acceptable by the team boss. He said it felt as Simoncelli has committed a murder.
Talking about the French GP and its consisting incidents, he added that Casey Stoner’s punch act was worth only 5000 Euros and Jorge Lorenzo’s pass over Andrea Dovizioso was considered legal, despite being more dangerous and hard than Simoncelli’s.
Fausto Gresini also addressed the views expressed by Pedrosa’s manager Alberto Puig, who made harsh statements about the Italian’s act. He compared the incident to the one where Dani Pedrosa took out his former teammate Nicky Hayden in the 2006 season.
Gresini replied to Puig’s views and said, “I'd like to try to tone down the polemics, but I can't accept some views, even though I understand they come from a hurt person. But I'd like to remind people with short memories that what happened at Estoril in
2006 was maybe even worse.”
The San Carlo Honda Gresini team boss expects that the situation settles down before the next event due at Catalunya on June 5, 2011.
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