Assen MotoGP: Toni Elias apologises to Loris Capirossi

Spaniard Toni Elias issued an apology to Italian veteran Loris Capirossi after the pair tangled at the final corner in Assen.

Fighting for sixth place after Mika Kallio had crashed out just seconds before, Elias dived under Capirossi’s factory Suzuki GSV-R braking for Assen’s famous final chicane.

But he couldn’t stop his San Carlo Gresini Honda and make the opening right-hand part of the chicane, running off into the gravel trap.

Capirossi had no choice but to run off too and drop down to 10th, though Race Direction later docked Elias 20 seconds for the move, which gave James Toseland his first sixth place.

It dropped Elias down from eight to 12th and he said: “I want to publicly apologise to Capirossi though because I was very late into the last chicane and ran us both off track.

“I feel bad for him but I just had to give it everything I had today. Race direction have decided to penalise me for it, which I have to accept, but the most important thing about today was the performance and not the result.”

Capirossi, who was bumped up from 10th to ninth, said: “I thought that sixth would be not too bad, but on the last corner Elias tried to overtake me and put me out and that was it, it was is all over.

“I am upset because I really think if I had got a good start today I would have had a good race and we’d have been competitive, but it’s finished now and we have to move on.”