Jorge Lorenzo was apologetic following his mistake on the second lap of the Catalan grand prix, where he out-braked himself at Turn 10 and took out several leading riders.
The Mallorcan tucked the front of his Honda RC213-V into the tight Turn 10 left-hander, sliding into Maverick Vinales and taking him down. The two then collected Andrea Dovizioso as they slid off the circuit, while Valentino Rossi was unable to avoid the carnage and also crashed out.
All four riders were forced to retire as a result of the damage caused to their respective motorcycles, which had huge ramifications for the riders standings following Marc Marquez’s dominant victory.
Dovizioso, who entered the weekend 12 points behind Marquez, has now slipped to 37 behind the Spaniard and now has Suzuki’s Alex Rins and team-mate Danilo Petrucci just a few points behind.
Lorenzo explained that he had simply out-braked himself on corner entry, and could do nothing to avoid his unfortunate competitors.
Turn 10 has been a particular hot-spot for crashes all weekend across all three classes, with Moto3 leader Kajto Toba and Moto2 podium contender Fabio Di Gianantonio just two other top riders to fall foul of the corner.
“It’s a tricky corner, it’s easy to make a mistake if you brake a little too late and this happened to me,” said Lorenzo.
“The overtake was quite normal, I wasn’t going in too fast but the corner was coming,coming, coming and I was catching Andrea (Dovizioso), and to avoid touching I pulled the brake a little more and lost the front.
“I was a little unfortunate to take out several riders in front of me. I feel really sorry for Valentino (Rossi), Andrea (Dovizioso) and Maverick (Vinales) as it obviously wasn’t their fault.
“It was my mistake but with this type of corner it’s very difficult not to make a mistake, so that’s how it is.”
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