Jorge Lorenzo blasts 'crazy' Bautista move

Jorge Lorenzo has blasted Alvaro Bautista for his 'crazy' first turn Assen move, which saw both riders eliminated from the Dutch MotoGP.

Lorenzo's title lead was destroyed when Bautista made a lunge for the inside at turn one, fell when he lost the front of his Honda and then wiped out the unsuspecting Lorenzo ahead of him (see below for further pictures).

Bautista, who qualified eighth, has been punished with a last place start at next weekend's German round. But Lorenzo - who incurred the wrath of Race Direction while in the 250cc class - thinks Bautista has got off far too lightly.

"Well, today was a complete disaster, Alvaro's move was crazy," said Lorenzo. "I met him after the incident, he apologised and we shook hands but in my opinion this is not enough to justify the accident.

"When I made a mistake in Japan in 2005 I was penalized with a race [ban]. Race Direction told me that he will start from last position on the grid in Sachsenring but this is nothing.

"We hope that we will be lucky in the future that nothing will happen, but if the riders are not penalized properly then they will continue to do crazy things like today.

"My leg is a big bruise, a big impact but nothing serious happened."

Team manager Wilco Zeelenberg branded Bautista's move as a 'big mistake'.

"A very stupid accident, a too early attack by Bautista resulting in a big mistake," he said "Luckily Jorge is uninjured which is pretty much the only positive thing to take from the race."

Although he had qualified behind the Repsol Honda riders, Lorenzo was seen as the favourite for what could have been a fourth victory in a row.

Instead, reigning champion Casey Stoner went on to take victory, instantly erasing his 25-point disadvantage to Lorenzo.

"Luckily for us we had a 25 point advantage or we would now be far behind. Now we are at zero with Casey so we begin again, the Championship is long so let's see what happens" said Lorenzo, whose M1 also looked to suffer engine damage in the incident.

Lorenzo was also taken down by a Gresini Honda rider on the opening lap of last year's race, when he tangled with the late Marco Simoncelli. On that occasion Lorenzo was able to rejoin and finish sixth place.