Avintia stand-in Christophe Ponsson has released a scathing statement regarding losing his MotoGP ride for Aragon, in which he slams “mafia-like” behaviour from Dorna and the riders.
Ponsson was called in to take the place of the injured Tito Rabat for last weekend's San Marino Grand Prix, riding Xavier Simeon's GP16 Ducatis while the Belgian took over Rabat's GP17s.
Safety concerns were raised by the majority of riders regarding Ponsson – whose world championship racing experience extends to a lacklustre World Superbike campaign in 2015 – and his lack of MotoGP experience.
Expected to race at Aragon this weekend, Avintia announced last week it would be field former Moto2 race winner Jordi Torres instead of the 22-year-old Frenchman.
However, Ponsson claims he had a four-race contract with Avintia and that the current riders – naming Cal Crutchlow and Jack Miller explicitly – “insisted” on his exclusion from racing at Aragon.
“Christophe has signed a 17-page agreement stating that he should ride in MotoGP rounds in Misano, Aragon, Thailand and Japan,” the statement read. “There is no article to terminate the said agreement before.
“Ruben Xaus [trainer] reminded him that it was not possible, due to the four-race contract. The team owner explained that the decision was mainly due to Cal Crutchlow and Jack Miller, who insisted and convinced other riders to exclude Christophe.
“He then explained that the MotoGP riders forced Dorna to organise this week a Grand Prix Commission meeting in order to include the GP riders in the selection of replacements.”
The statement goes on to says Ponsson is “pondering if it's worth continuing in the sport” having been left feeling “disappointed and quite disgusted”, and says the MotoGP riders have “degraded their reputation” by allegedly demanding Ponsson be benched.
“We have no further explanation for the moment, but we will demand clear reasons as it is important to understand why Christophe's debut in MotoGP was sabotaged.
“It is sad to see how some of these riders claim to be the best in the world, on the best bikes in the world, in the best championship in the world, and still degrade their reputation by improvising a GPC because of a few riders want to get ride of a newcomer – this is not so grand.
“We were expecting this mafia-like behaviour in the small, private races, not in MotoGP.”
Currently sixth in the European Superstock 1000 series, Ponsson says he “would never” have agreed to do just one MotoGP race without any prior testing, and says Avintia offered him the chance to carry on for the remainder of the season should Rabat – who is eyeing a Thailand comeback – not return.
Avintia nor Dorna is yet to comment on Ponsson's claims.
