Suzuki's Joan Mir and Avintia rider Karel Abraham both admit they are unsure why they crashed at the start of the warm-up lap during the MotoGP French Grand Prix.
Both Mir and Abraham suffered identical front-end crashes while braking for the Dunlop chicane at the start of the sighting lap at Le Mans, with KTM's Johann Zarco getting hit by the errant Avintia Ducati and forced to run off.
Both rejoined the race on their spare bikes, though Abraham was later disqualified for leaving pitlane after the first lap had been completed. Mir finished a lapped 16th.
Speaking afterwards, Mir says he had been struggling all weekend to generate front tyre temperature, but is at a complete loss as to why the front locked up having been bolt upright while applying minimal brake pressure.
“Well, was a shame, because during all the weekend it was really difficult for me to warm the front tyre and [the crash] happen the same as in the warm-up,” Mir told motogp.com.
“In the end, sincerely I don't know what happened. I braked really early, not harder than the other riders and I locked the front completely straight and with no pressure on the brakes.
“So we have to see what happens, because it's a difficult situation, because I crash four times this weekend and I don't know why.”
Abraham admits he thought his crash was caused by Mir collecting him, and says data analysis by his Avintia team revealed he did “nothing strange”.
“Well, to be honest I would like to explain to you what happened, but I don't know,” Abraham, who started his 200th race at Le Mans, added.
“We checked the data and there was nothing strange that we did, nothing strange that was happening.
“I was not completely sure if Joan hit me from the back or something like that, but it didn't happen because I saw the video afterwards.
“I went to Suzuki to talk to them and they are in the same situation as us. They have no idea what happened, so we are all surprised.
“We know the tyre pressure, the tyre temperature was OK, the brakes were OK, the brake pressure was OK. There was absolutely no lean angle, so we have no idea.”
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