Danilo Petrucci has apologised to
MotoGP world champion
Casey Stoner for an incident in the closing stages of Friday's second free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.
Stoner was seen to put a harsh pass on Petrucci as the pair accelerated towards the final turn and it seems the Repsol Honda rider was irked at an unseen previous 'near miss'.
Rookie Petrucci was certainly quick to apologise, Tweeting soon after the session: “I'm sorry with Casey but I was pushing hard and I can't see what happened behind me. My bike don't reach 300 km/h in main straight.”
Petrucci's Aprilia powered Ioda did break the 300km/h mark on Friday - just. But he was almost 14km/h behind the next slowest CRT and a massive 44km/h from the highest top speed of the day, recorded by Pramac Ducati's Hector Barbera.
UPDATE: Stoner (Official_CS27) has now tweeted his own comments on the incident:
"I feel sorry for the guys on CRT's, they deserve to have a chance to show their talent on same equipment. The gap is way too big, not fair.
"Everyone is making a huge deal about myself and Petrucci more than we are, I spoke my words, he spoke his and it's all good.
"I think everyone should see both sides of the story before making a judgement, especially since everyone only saw part 2 of the incident!"
Meanwhile Petrucci (Petrux9) has posted the above picture of his meeting with Stoner, adding the words, "Real riders clarify things with the smile on the face."
Stoner was sixth in Friday practice and Petrucci 19th out of the 20 riders, with a best lap time four-seconds from pace setter Jorge Lorenzo.