You are here

MotoGP, Aleix-Iannone incident: a video exonerates the mechanic

A video has surfaced on Facebook taken from inside the Aprilia garage, showing how Espargaró departed before being released

Iscriviti al nostro canale YouTube

Share


One of the most talked about episodes after the Brno GP was the incident involving Aleix Espargaró and Andrea Iannone during the bike change. The Aprilia rider, after the bike change, departed his garage just as the Suzuki rider was re-entering. Andrea had to brake suddenly to avoid him and he slipped on the wet yellow stripe, the consequence being that his bike fell over against his teammate, Rins’ bike.

Initially the mechanic responsible for releasing the rider was blamed, considering the fact that the rules give the rider re-entering the right of way, not the rider exiting. Even Romano Albesiano, Aprilia Racing manager, had pointed out how Aleix was not at fault in that episode, complaining about the 3-position penalty.

However, a video of the episode has surfaced on Facebook (you can watch it by clicking the photo above) that exonerates the mechanic. In fact, seeing Iannone arriving, the crew member tried to keep Espargaró from leaving. In fact, the Spaniard departed when the mechanic still had both hands on the top fairing, trying to stop him, and he had to move out of the way at the last minute to keep from being run over.

It was, therefore, Aleix’s over-enthusiasm in a hectic moment of the race that caused the accident and not a mistake by the mechanic.

This time, Race Direction made the right call.

Translated by Jonathan Blosser
__

Related articles