Pol Espargaro has reignited his feud with Scott Redding after the two riders collided in Sunday’s Grand Prix of the Americas. The pair didn’t seen eye-to-eye in 2013 when they were fierce rivals in the race for the Moto2 title and the incident that took them both out of the race in Texas has sparked a war of words of social media.
The accident in question took place on the opening lap with Redding losing the front end of his Estrella Galicia Marc VDS Honda under braking for turn twelve before sliding straight into the blameless Espargaro. Speaking after the race, the Briton explained his view of the incident and explained that the presence of Jorge Lorenzo was a contributory factor.
“I had a good early battle with Lorenzo in the first three corners and in turn 11 he stopped mid-corner to pull it back round and I was in a little bit too hot and I think I clipped the back of him and went down. I got going again and wanted to stay out in case it rained but the left foot-peg broke off, so I had no gears and had to retire”.
Espargaro was furious after losing the chance to challenge his teammate Bradley Smith for top satellite honours, complaining that “there are still riders who think that they can win the race on the first lap”, in reference to Redding’s move. After failing to receive an apology, the Spaniard would go onto describe his old rival as “not a gentleman” in a subsequent Instagram post before responding angrily to Redding’s apologetic reply, reiterating his disappointment at such a move on the very first lap.
The pair will look to put this weekend’s drama behind them in Argentina with round three of the MotoGP season taking place this weekend.
