Abraham "really upset" after synchronised formation lap crash
Karel Abraham was left “really upset” by the synchronised crash on the formation lap of the French Grand Prix, in which he fell and was hit by Joan Mir's Suzuki.
Abraham and Mir crashed within moments of each other on the warm-up lap, both losing control of their bikes and falling off in tandem.
Mir's out-of-control GSX-RR hit the already-down Abraham as the Czech rider slid towards the gravel, while his own Avintia-run Ducati bike hit the side of Johann Zarco's KTM.
Both ultimately rejoined the race, although Abraham was black-flagged shortly thereafter for “violating the rules of departure from the pitlane”, while Mir went on to finish 16th and last.
“I felt very confident before the race to fight to enter the points,” Abraham said. “I think we could have done it but on the warm-up lap I went straight and I fell. I think that behind me Joan Mir also went to the ground.
“It has been all very strange. Now my back and head hurts because of the fall. I’m disappointed, really upset because I knew we could get a couple of points in this race - instead we go [away] with a big zero again.”
Rookie Mir, whose crash in warm-up was his fourth of the weekend, sits 17th in the standings with eight points, whereas Abraham is the only full-timer yet to score in 2019.
Mir reckoned the crash will have likely been down to a cold front tyre, but added: “In the end, sincerely I don't know what happened.
“I braked really early, not harder than the other riders, and locked the front, completely straight, and with no pressure on the brakes.
“We have to see what happened, because it's a difficult situation, I crash four times this weekend, and I didn't know why. And we have to know.”
Another multi-bike incident happened in the race itself, as Francesco Bagnaia collected Maverick Vinales at the sweeping Turn 12 left-hander, the incident launching both riders into the air.
Bagnaia attributed the crash to Aleix Espargaro blocking off Vinales in the fight for 11th, which he believes led the Yamaha man to slow dramatically and caused the crash.
“Aleix closed the line very, very fast and didn't let Maverick overtake him. And Maverick stopped the bike and I touched him. It was impossible to not take him into the crash,” Bagnaia explained.
Vinales, for his part, felt the incident was a consequence of his poor qualifying the day before.
“A mistake was on Saturday, the strategy we did very bad,” he said. “When you start 11th, this is what you are exposed to.
“It started a perfect weekend and ended with zero points, we have to understand and learn.”
Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont and Guillaume Navarro
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