MotoGP: Petrucci slams Lorenzo after practice near miss

Danilo Petrucci has slammed Jorge Lorenzo after a near miss in today’s second free practice session saw the Italian narrowly avoid the Spaniard’s rear wheel.

Petrucci caught up with Lorenzo, who is believed to have been on an out lap, on entry to Vale in the closing moments of the afternoon’s second session but struggled to stop his Desmosedici in time, almost running into the back of the man he will replace in the factory squad next year.

“Jorge doesn’t care about anyone on track,” Petrucci told journalists after the session. “He came out of the pits and I think he was scared about the time until the end of the session. I was pushing, improving my first sector to improve my lap time and I found him in the middle of the track. I don’t know why. I nearly hit him, it would have been a disaster, I was doing more than 200kph in fourth gear! I tried everything to stop the bike, but when I saw that it wasn’t possible I released the brake and ran on.”

Admitting he didn’t even know the near miss had happened until he saw it on TV, Lorenzo has turned the blame to Petrucci.

“It was luckily not a collision,” he said. “I didn’t realise, I was looking where I was going and did not hear anything. I saw it in the motorhome and it was very scary… he was very close to my rear wheel! I don’t know why he nearly hit me, I was just trying to warm-up the tyres as fast as possible. I wasn’t slow, but I wasn’t braking very late. He was very close to me, when you have a rider in front of you, in my opinion, you must be responsible and allow some space just in case the rider in front has a mistake or locks the front. He didn’t allow that space.”

Pick up this week’s MCN for an extensive, 36-page British Grand Prix preview featuring exclusive interviews with Rossi, Marquez and Lorenzo, a hot lap with Cal Crutchlow and the tech secrets between Marquez’ championship-leading Honda.

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