Cal Crutchlow "doesn't agree" with his penalty for jumping the start of the MotoGP Argentine Grand Prix, and says his respect for Steward Freddie Spencer has gone “way down”.
The LCR rider launched from eighth on the grid and was running in the podium battle early on when he was hit with a ride-through penalty for jumping the start.
He served the penalty at the end of lap five and rejoined last. He managed to fight his way through to 13th.
Crutchlow denied Race Direction's allegations he was “rolling” before the lights went out, and says his opinion of Stewards Panel Chairman Spencer has altered in the wake of this incident, while questioning if a similar penalty would have been imposed on Argentina podium men Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi or Andrea Dovizioso.
“No, and my opinion of Freddie as a Race Director has gone down a lot now,” Crutchlow told BT Sport when asked if the punishment fit the crime.
“I thought him coming in and making some better decisions for us on other things, on contact of the racing etc, he would understand a lot more.
“But it seems that he doesn't. This is not me disrespecting him at all, because what he's done in his career is fantastic etc [Spencer is a double 500cc world champion].
“I just don't agree with the penalty he has imposed on me. I also wonder if he would have given the same penalty to Marc or Valentino or Dovi if they moved that much that I did on the roll of my foot.”
Crutchlow's crew chief Chirstophe Bourguignon says his rider did not release his clutch, and therefore could not have jumped the start.
He echoed Crutchlow's comments on Spencer, admitting he expected more “common sense” from the American.
“To have a jumped start you need to release the clutch, and Cal did not release the clutch before the light went off,” he said.
“There is no jump start. But Race Direction obviously feel a bit different, they can see the bike slightly moving but it's not by the release of the clutch.
“You can see on the really slow motion you can see a really small movement of the bike, but Cal did not release the clutch before and he did not jump the start.
“Now we have Freddie there [in Race Direction], I was expecting he would have a little more common sense to understand that the front fork doesn't move, the front forks don't extend, there is no engine [delivery] to the rear wheel.
“I'm a little bit disappointed, I was expecting a little bit more common sense there.
“We work really hard all weekend, Cal come through a really bad winter and all has been destroyed by this. Ok, the rules are the rules, but there needs to be some common sense in this issue.”
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