Buzzin MotoGP

Andrea Iannone - Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. - British MotoGP 2009

It was an exciting 125cc race at Misano on Sunday, with the two front runners Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. rider Andrea Iannone and Bancaja Aspar Team rider Julian Simon, fighting for victory.

With three laps of the race to run, the leading pair were joined by Derbi Racing Team rider Pol Espargaró, who after a terrible start, put in some fast laps and some impressive overtaking before passing of the leading  riders.

On the penultimate lap, Iannone and Espargaró switched the lead several times, however, on the final corner of the final lap, Iannone attempted to pass the Spanish rider on the inside, which is where  it all  went wrong and both riders crashed out of the race and gifting the top step of the podium to Julian Simon.

The two had some heated words in the gravel trap before Iannone appeared to headbutt Espargaró.  On returning to the pits Iannone continued his anger at waiting journalists and has since been fined $5,000 by the Race Direction because of his conduct and has now issued an apology to Pol Espargaró.

A press release was sent out on Monday by the Ongetta Team on behalf of Andrea Iannone which said;

“I had been waiting for the Misano race for a long time and I had dreamed about achieving a good result in front of the Italian fans, but the dream turned into a nightmare a few metres from the finishing line.

It was a great race, with both of us riding very correctly and with Pol Espargaró riding bravely, imposing his rhythm right until the end. But on the last corner I felt confident and certain I could get past him. I broke really hard, went on the inside, arrived at the apex and then when I thought I had got through the angle changed. I couldn’t do anything at that point to avoid the crash and I took Pol out of the equation as he was going around the outside and he had no fault in the crash. We hit the ground and all I could think of was that a big chance had been lost.

Then when I went to apologise to Espargaró he understandably reacted with some strong words and punched my bike.  As Valentino Rossi said later I should have gone to apologise again but instead I lost my temper and I did something which I will always regret for the rest of my life. When I went back to the pit-box there were several journalists waiting for me and I made another mistake by saying some things in the heat of the moment which I really did not think. It was something that happened because of the intensity of the moment, after such a dramatic end to an amazingly close race.

On Sunday night, thinking through everything that had happened I was ashamed about what had happened with Pol and the things I said to the media afterwards. I have to say that I really appreciate Pol’s qualities as a rider, he is very fast and, like me, he tries to do the very best job he can. I want to apologise to everyone, to my team, to my sponsors and all fans of motorcycle racing. I am sure this will not happen again”.